By: Jake Novy

A pair of East Valley teams take to the gridiron this Friday night with one goal in mind...to compete for a state title.  The winner of a semifinal tilt between the third-seeded Desert Vista Thunder and number-seven seed Basha Bears at Mesquite High School will punch their ticket to the Division One state championship game.

The Thunder have reeled off five straight wins since suffering their lone hiccup of the season in early October to Hamilton.  DV has been completely dominant in the bottom half of the Division One playoff bracket with a 42-7 rout over North Canyon in opening round action and last week's 52-7 blowout victory against Pinnacle.  The Desert Vista offense, led by quarterback Hunter Rodriguez, is averaging 41 points per game this season, but the Thunder defense deserves just as much credit, if not more, for the team's 11-and-1 mark heading into their semifinal tilt.  The Bolts' D has three shutouts on its campaign and has allowed more than two scores just three times all season.  Desert Vista is 5-and-0 away from home this season.

Meanwhile, the Bears pulled off the biggest upset of the season by beating previously unbeaten and second-seeded Brophy, 32-29, last Thursday night at Phoenix College.  Basha blanked Tucson, 55-0, in first round playoff action.  The Bears have won three straight games on the heels of a three-game slide to sit at 9-and-3 overall.  Senior quarterback Kyle Duran paces a Bear offense that has put up 556 total points this season and is averaging 46 per contest.

DV scored 14 unanswered points in the second half to beat Basha, 14-13, the last time the two school met in 2008.  The Thunder have won three-of-four versus the Bears dating back to 2005, with Basha's lone victory in the series coming in 2006.  The Thunder and Bears have played four common opponents this season, with just one team getting the better of both of them: the top-seeded Hamilton Huskies.  The winner of Friday night's tilt could get a chance at redemption if the aforementioned Huskies top fourth-seeded Desert Ridge in the other semifinal game.  The 2011 AIA Division One State Football Championship game will be played Saturday, November, 26th at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.