MHS football drops Homecoming game to South Mountain

Maricopa High School’s varsity football team battled South Mountain in a 5A conference contest, but the Homecoming game slipped away from the Rams in the fourth.

Losing 33-20 on Friday the 13th under a full moon, MHS now has a record of 2-2.

“As well as we played on some things, we didn’t stop the run,” head coach Brandon Harris said. “They did everything we said they would. We’ve got to make plays.”

The Rams executed a plan to throw the ball more but could not get a rhythm going. The Jaguars proved to be slippery for the Maricopa defense, with the Rams frequently in chase mode.

“We’ve got to take proper angles,” Harris said. “We talk about taking proper angles all week. We come out here and we don’t take proper angles.”

South Mountain struck first with just three and half minutes off the clock as team captain Devontae Ingram took the ball in from the 45. The Rams tied it up in the final minutes of the quarter with Tylek Mooney scoring and Roberto Esqueda kicking the extra point.

Maricopa took the lead with 2:29 left in the half when Mister Chavis rushed in from the 15 topped off by another extra point from Esqueda. South Mountain scored on an 11-yard-pass but missed the extra point, and the Rams maintained a 14-13 lead.

Chavis returned a kick all the way for a touchdown with seven seconds left in the half to put the Rams ahead by seven.

A big kickoff return and big pass completion to start the third quarter, however, put the Jaguars on the 41-yardline. Ingram scored again on a pass from Amier Boyd. With the extra point, the game was tied 20-20.

“I thought for the first time this year we had good plays in all facets of the game,” Harris said. “Our kicking game was great for the most part. We missed that extra point, but we kicked the ball deep. We had good field position. Took away field position on them, but then they marched down the field on us.”

During the game, Maricopa had two would-be touchdown passes fall in the end zone and a touchdown run brought back by a penalty.

The Jaguars also had a scoring run erased by a flag, but a 38-yard run on the next play put them in the lead for good, 26-20. Maricopa blocked the extra-point attempt and had 10:24 left to stage a comeback. The Rams’ offense, however, could never get going while the defense, despite big plays, still could not contain Boyd and powerful running back K’rashee Smith, who slipped through one more time to score yet again for South Mountain.

“We had a pretty decent week of practice. We did what we had to do. No surprises from them at all,” Harris said. “It seems the weight of the world is on our shoulders a lot of the time, and we need learn to play a little bit more relaxed.”

Next week, Maricopa travels to winless Central High in Phoenix.

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