Chaparral outlasted Williams Field 35-28 at home Friday night. Photo by Bailey Warren/azpreps365.com.

Chaparral punched its ticket to the 6A state championship for the second straight year after outlasting Williams Field 35-28 at home Friday night.

A defensive battle in the first half turned into a second half shootout as the two teams combined for 49 points and 555 total yards after halftime.

In the fourth quarter, with 9:38 left, Chaparral found itself down seven and needing a score to keep a hot Williams Field offense at bay. That is when senior quarterback Brayten Silbor delivered the best performance of the night.

Silbor connected with senior receiver Gavin Higley on back-to-back plays going for 60 total yards to set up a Jamarei Ashby-phan’s 3-yard rushing touchdown, taking only 2:22 off the clock. The Firebird defense then stepped up, forcing a three-and-out and allowing Silbor to deliver a signature 5:27 drive to put Chaparral up for good.

It wasn’t always pretty for the Firebird signal caller, though. He had seven interceptions all year, but Silbor tossed three in the first half, including one in the red zone.

Despite the three turnovers, Silbor stayed confident, throwing three second half touchdowns. That included an improvised 52-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Lukas Garvey.

“It was a shot play to the left side that got blown up so I just rolled out trying to make something happen,” Silbor said. “I saw Garvey one-on-one and I had to give him a chance to make a play, which he did.

“I knew I needed to step my game up. We were miscommunicating on the offensive side a lot by running the wrong routes, but we fixed that in the second half.”

With just over a minute left in the game, Williams Field had a chance to tie the game up with one last drive. Junior quarterback CJ Tiller led the Black Hawks to the Chaparral 40, but the Firebird defense stepped up once again in the fourth quarter.

Junior safety Luke Franze stepped in front of a Tiller pass to seal the game.

“We did what we have talked about all the time by focusing on what we can control,” Chaparral head coach Brent Barnes said. “We have gotten better every week of the season even during our three game losing streak. We just didn’t get caught up in all of that. The message was always that we are getting better every week and that is all that matters. I could not be more proud of these guys and all that they have done, improving each time out and that is how you keep playing this time of the year.”

Chaparral will face the top seeded Highland Hawks for the second year in a row, as it looks to repeat once again as 6A state champions next Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium. It will look to repeat as state champions for the first time since 2009-2011 when they won three straight.