Higley overcomes 21-6 deficit, rolls past Cactus for 1st 5A football championship

After Jamar Malone II threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown, after Will Galvan side-stepped a defender on his way to the end zone, it didn't look good for Gilbert Higley's football team Friday night at Sun Devil Stadium.

Suddenly, Higley flipped a switch, sparked a relentless defense and the brilliance of Malone and reeled off the next 35 points to cruise to the school's first 5A state football championship with a 41-21 victory over Glendale Cactus.

"They don't score, they don't win," said coach Eddy Zubey, who received his first-ever championship ice water bath from his players afterwards. "We were able to stop the run and finally dialed into what they were doing."

Cactus (10-4) was on a fast track to its fourth state title, after Nicco Boncore jumped a route and returned Malone's pass 60 yards for a score late in the first quarter to give the Cobras a 14-6 lead.

Just as it seemed to have Higley's high-powered offense solved, all-everything senior Will Galvan bounced around a couple of defenders on his way to a 17-yard touchdown run that gave Cactus a 21-6 lead with about eight minutes left in the half.

It was all Higley the rest of the way.

Key to the sudden surge was defense, especially two plays turned in by sophomore outside linebacker Kamarion Peete. Peete sacked Rudy Gonzales for a 14-yard loss deep in Cactus' territory. A short punt gave Higley field position at Cactus' 38. From there, Malone made a couple of quick plays to get Higley to the 10, before Dax Hall scored on a quick burst up the middle.

Peete then made a tackle for a 5-yard loss that forced another punt deep in Cactus' territory. Starting from the Cobras' 39, Malone needed just two plays to cut it to 21-20. He found Kaden Millner for a 24-yard score with 35 seconds left in the half.

Hall capped an 80-yard scoring drive to start the second half with a 1-yard run, Malone hit Carter Hancock for a 33-yard touchdown, and it was 34-21 with 5:43 to play in the third quarter.

Cactus turned the ball over at the Higley 5 when there was still enough time to make it a game, before Malone finished it off with a 1-yard scoring run before frustrations mounted on Cactus' side and two defenders were ejected with less than two minutes to play.

"It's happened to us all year," Malone said. "We've been in deficits before. On the sideline, we said, 'Hey, we've got to bring it together if we want to win this. We've got to be special.' We all agreed as a team that we want to be special."

It was another heartbreak ending to a brilliant career by Galvan, who was part of four Cactus teams that were on the doorsteps of championships but just came up short.

"They made some really good adjustments," said Galvan, who lined up at receiver, quarterback and tailback during the game. "On offense, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. Little penalties. You can't have that in a state championship game."

All those short fields that Cactus was giving Higley, especially against a Higley offense that can score in so many ways, it put stress on a defense that had eight players going both ways.

Malone was sacked five times, three by Dom Solano. But he kept getting back up and making plays. He finished with 252 yards and two TDs passing, and ran for 79 yards, including a 60-yard TD for the game's first score.

As usual, Malone's favorite target was Hancock, who caught eight passes for 175 yards.

Hall, a huge weapon out of the backfield with his speed and moves, finished with 116 yards and two TDs rushing.

"It's just awesome," Hancock said. "Just to do it for all of the alumni. We had a lot of firsts this year. So just to get it done, it's awesome."

After getting down 21-6, Hancock said mental errors stopped.

"We had to just keep playing our game," he said.

Zubey said the change in the second quarter started on defense.

"We did a lot more zone," he said. "We stopped blitzing a lot. We were getting there with our three-man pressure. He got out of containment a couple of times and made some big plays. When he had to sit in the pocket, he wasn't able to do stuff. We just stayed in our zone, play deep, and let them try to beat us that way."

This was a huge turnaround not just in the game but during the season for the Knights after going 2-8 last year to finish this year at 12-2, after moving back down from 6A.

The biggest progression was the play of Malone, who completely turned up his game after taking his knocks as the varsity starter his freshman year.

"We knew a lot of their players were going both ways," Malone said. "We knew the second half was going to be our time."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Higley rolls past Cactus for 1st 5A football championship