Heading into fourth-ranked Prescott with the least impressive record among the 4A Conference’s top eight teams Friday, Oct. 22, Mesquite High School needed more than its two-time state champion pedigree to justify hosting another postseason title defense.

“We want to play these guys again, but we want to play them at our place,” said head coach Scott Hare, who has the opportunity to finish 7-3 and second in the Desert Sky Region but still host a first-round 4A tournament game.  “They’re going to be in the top eight. I think we’re going to be in the top eight. So this is probably a quarterfinal game somewhere down the road.”

Behind three touchdown passes by senior quarterback Gerardo Saenz, the Wildcats provided a devastating first look, dismantling the fourth-ranked Badgers, 37-7.

“This is, actually, a really big statement,” said Saenz, the conference’s fifth-ranked passer since taking over for graduated all-Arizona quarterback Ty Thompson, now at the University of Oregon. “We were ranked pretty low and, with the teams we played--which really shouldn’t even matter, because we played very good teams, and we barely lost to them--this is a really good win for us, to blow them out like that.”

A four-point loss to 5A’s sixth-ranked team notwithstanding, the Wildcats’ only other losses have come to the top two teams in 4A--the conference’s only firm Open Division seeds in top-ranked Cactus and American Leadership Academy - Queen Creek, Mesquite’s leaders in the Desert Sky Region. 

“We’re a completely different team than when we played Cactus,” Hare said of his team’s only blowout loss this fall, in its opener. “We graduated a lot of kids; we have guys at completely different positions. There were some things we tried to do against Cactus--we were in a two-back [formation]--because we weren’t really sure what kind of team we were going to have.” 

The Wildcats showed they were sure from the opening kickoff at Prescott, taking less than three minutes to march to the Badger 24-yard-line, where Saenz found Thompson’s favorite target, senior Andrew Morris, springing for his pass.

Junior Ali Mahmood’s extra point quieted the partisan Prescott crowd from the 9:20 mark until the game was all but over.

“Prescott is really second in 4A, if they take the two [Open Division] teams out,” Hare said. “So this is, obviously, pretty big.” 

After their program-defining win last week at Coconino High School, the Badgers needed to avoid an emotional letdown with head coach Cody Collett back calling plays from the home press box. 

But a three-and-out on their opening series, leading to a first half in which they struggled to convert a first down, ending with just five pass completions between two quarterbacks for less than 40 yards, was arguably worse than their desired result. 

Worse because a Landen Francis fumble recovery was not only wasted, it led to the Wildcats scoring a rushing touchdown their very next series. Aptly-named senior Blake Corner, 4A’s third-leading rusher, found the corner of the end zone from 45 yards out around left end with 3:36 still to play in the first quarter, breaking the 1,000-yard rushing barrier in the process.

“He’s probably going to break every rushing record Mesquite has this year,” Hare said. “He’s had three 200-yard games. We’re running him a lot.”

Junior running back Cody Leopold countered by grinding out tough yardage for a first down the Badgers’ next series, but his 68 yards rushing, whether in the Wildcat formation or not, was as much production as Prescott could muster all night against a Wildcat defense. 

“I like our development, I like where we’re going, I like our effort,” Hare said. “I like how we’re able to adjust, throughout the game, too. They take coaching well.” 

Senior Cervando Vega’s second-quarter interception was not only for naught, it came after a Prescott punt only to its 48 gave Saenz a short field to work with. He would, 18 yards later, find senior Carter Wojcik for the first of two times from the Badger 30-yard-line for a 20-0 skunking.

“It’s pretty crazy how they can get away from the corners and create space for me to throw the ball to them,” Saenz said. “He knew that the safety was coming over, so he just broke it off in the middle and I hit him right there. 

“We’ve all been playing with each other for a while, so we know what we’re thinking.” 

That was the score Mesquite held over the Badgers heading into the halftime locker room, as starting quarterback Alex Vaughan could not find receivers, and fellow junior Cole Gross could not find his accuracy on a 37-yard field goal attempt.

Prescott’s most sustained drive of the game to open the second half stalled at the Mesquite 47, and the Wildcats were content to let the third-quarter clock draw down to three-and-a-half minutes to play before settling for a Mahmood chip shot from 23 yards.

Once Saenz still had the ball up 23-0 entering the fourth quarter, the game was up. A mere 19 seconds into that final period, he found Wojcik again in the flat, and he streaked 30 yards down his sidelines for a 30-0 lead.

“We’ve grown tremendously,” Hare said. “We’ve developed into who I think we should be.” 

A Daniel Clark pick-six less than three minutes later--Vaughn's second interception of the night--was the signal for both coaches to empty their benches. Sophomore Jaxon Rice’s four-yard pass to senior tight end Ethan Ammerman against the Wildcats’ second-string defense managed to avoid the shutout.

But it did not take away from the reminder that the 4A state title is still Mesquite’s to lose. It has been since 2019.

“Never count us out of anything,” Saenz said.