By Don Ketchum

Larry Fetkenhier of Glendale Cactus is known as one of the top high school football coaches in Arizona. But he has coached a few basketball games along the way, too.

That has included using a full-court press.

“Sometimes when you use the full-court press, it doesn’t seem like it’s working in the first or second quarter, but it can eventually wear you down,’’ he said.

Fetkenhier applied the press on the field against visiting Scottsdale Saguaro on Friday night. It came in the form of a no-huddle offense that had the Saguaro defense gasping for breath, when some of its players weren’t coughing up their pregame meals.

The approach helped Cactus storm back from an early 21-0 deficit for a 42-41 victory in overtime.

Cactus, the defending Class 4A Division II champion, raised its record to 4-0, while Saguaro fell to 3-1. Saguaro now faces defending Class 4A Division I champion Tucson Canyon del Oro next week, but that is one of the last things on the mind of Saguaro coach John Sanders.

He is looking for some of his players to recover from the flu, and see if place-kicker Peter Douds can recover from a knee injury. The injury, which occurred in practice on Thursday, was part of the reason why Sanders elected to go for two points in the overtime.

After Cactus quarterback Deke Cisco scored on a 5-yard run in overtime and Brody Riggs booted the PAT, Saguaro countered with D.J. Foster’s 8-yard TD run. Foster, a junior, finished with 255 yards on 19 carries and scored four touchdowns.

Saguaro lined up in an attempt to win it with a two-point conversion, but was flagged for a false start. Most everyone in attendance in a near-packed house figured the Sabercats would take the safe route with the PAT, but tried another two-pointer. It didn’t work as quarterback Teddy Ruben (21 carries, 113 yards) was swarmed for a 4-yard loss, led by Jon Moeck.

“I have a tendency to go for two anyway, so we still might not have kicked it if our guy were healthy,’’ Sanders said.

Cisco gave Cactus a little bit of momentum late in the second quarter with a 4-yard TD run to cut the lead to 21-7 at the half. He also played a major role in the game, rushing for 183 yards on 22 carries.

Meanwhile, Cactus running back Lashunn Norris got things in gear in the second half. He rushed for 111 of his 122 yards in the second half and scored two touchdowns.

“We looked at them (Saguaro) at the end of the first half and we could see that they were tired,’’ Fetkenhier said. “We just told the kids (at halftime) that we were going to keep doing what we’re doing. The tempo was pretty brisk out there.

“We’ve been in that kind of a spot before. The way our offense is, it gives us the ability to do some things like we did tonight. It was a great win for us.’’