Rams can’t stop Coronado quarterback in 40-24 loss

Alex Buya was every bit as good as advertised.

The standout senior quarterback rushed for five touchdowns and threw for another to lead visiting Scottsdale Coronado to a 40-24 victory Friday night over Maricopa.

“He did what we thought he was going to do, and we just couldn’t stop him,” Maricopa coach Cory Nenaber said about Buya, who finished with 197 yards rushing and 75 yards passing to put a damper on the Rams’ Homecoming game. “It’s pretty much that simple. They did a really good job blocking up front.”

Despite three touchdowns by Buya in the first two quarters, Maricopa led 21-20 at halftime on scoring runs by K.J. Diehl, Patrick Duffy and Randel Barber.

“I thought we played pretty well early on in the first half,” Nenaber said. “We’ve got to figure out how to do it for four quarters. We put together a pretty good half offensively and then a pretty bad half.”

The Rams answered Buya’s initial score of 17 yards with a 9-yard TD run by Diehl with 1:30 left in the opening quarter. Diehl’s touchdown was set up by a fumble recovery on defense by Maricopa senior safety Armando Cano.

Coronado (3-3 overall, 2-1 in the Class 4A-II East Sky Region) broke the 7-7 deadlock less than a minute later on a 45-yard run by Buya.

Maricopa (2-3, 0-2) fought back again in the second quarter, tying the score on Duffy’s 11-yard run and pulling ahead 21-14 on Barber’s 52-yard dash to the end zone.

Buya crossed the goal line from 2 yards out with 29 seconds remaining before halftime, but the Rams blocked the extra point to preserve their 21-20 lead at the intermission.

“Give them credit in the first half,” Coronado coach B.J. Pasquel said about the Rams. “They recovered the fumble, and the next thing you know, they seized their opportunity and made a ball-game out of it.”

Buya threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Devry Wright to put Coronado ahead to stay at 26-21 with 6:20 left in the third quarter.

After Maricopa pulled within 26-24 on a 26-yard field goal by Cano in the final minute of the third, Buya scored on touchdown runs of 1 and 19 yards in the fourth.

Maricopa blocked the extra point following Buya’s 1-yard scoring run, but the Rams were penalized for a personal foul. Coronado then went for a two-point conversion, and Buya ran it in to give the Dons a 34-24 lead.

Coronado put the game away on Buya’s 19-yard run with 3:23 remaining.

“We’re trying to change a culture here that is used to not succeeding,” Nenaber said. “We haven’t been really successful, and that’s the hardest thing right now. To face any kind of adversity, it’s really hard for us to handle that. We work on it every day. We talk about it. We put ourselves in those kinds of situations where we have to handle adversity. The only way to overcome it is to do it, and we haven’t found a way to do that yet.”

Coronado’s total of 361 yards rushing included 89 yards on 17 carries by Baylor Cloar and 63 yards on 10 attempts by Blaze Dikeman.

Buya gained 197 yards rushing on 22 carries, and he also completed 4 of 5 passes for 75 yards.

Maricopa finished with 263 yards rushing, as Barber led the way with 94 yards on four carries and Duffy added 59 yards on nine attempts.

Diehl ran for 38 yards on seven carries for the Rams, and he also completed 4 of 16 passes for 65 yards.

 

Photos by Tom Kessler