Ryan Sykora is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Pinnacle High School for AZPreps365.com

 

There’s only one thing more important than building momentum.

Regaining it.

One week removed from a lopsided loss against the Liberty High School Lions, Pinnacle was looking to pick themselves up off the canvas and start throwing the big punches.

Boy did they.

Pinnacle (2-1) threw all the heavy shots and regained some big momentum in their season in a 39-13 win over the Queen Creek High (1-2). 

“Really proud of our team,” Pinnacle head coach Dana Zupke said. “Queen Creek is a great program and every year they're very well coached, tough, disciplined kids. To get a win like this, it's a statement for our program.”

Pinnacle cruised out to a 24-0 lead Queen Creek at halftime. The Pioneers scored on all but one of their five first-half drives.

Senior tight end Duce Robinson accounted for three of those touchdowns in big-play fashion. 

The five-star recruit caught scoring passes of 31, 32 and 55 yards.

“He's a freak,” Pinnacle quarterback Wyatt Horton said on Robinson. “He's something else, it’s very special to get a guy like that.”

Robinson’s big play potential is easy to see, he’s a 6-foot-6, 225-pound jump-ball machine.  

That being said, Robinson's success only comes from a balanced attack. 

“Our offense was moving today,” Robinson said. “Our offensive line was incredible blocking. Jacobie [Rucker] had some runs that he broke [free], and it was just a lot of fun."

Rucker, a senior tailback was excited, almost honored even, to get a chance to carry a heavier workload a week after that healthy loss to Liberty.

Pinnacle didn’t give the running back the ball often early in that loss.

“This week, we just came out,” Rucker said. “Last week you know it was a little shaken up but this week we game-planned differently we utilized everybody this week.”

Rucker popped out in early wildcat formations, leaving Queen Creek to commit seven or eight guys to the run as the first half progressed.

That’s when Pinnacle took the top off and started getting the ball to Robinson and the rest of the outside playmakers.

“I think when you have the dynamic receivers like we do,” Zupke said. “If we can run the ball, I can tell you as a defensive coach, it's really a challenge to defend all that. It's just you want to make a team one-dimensional. If we can run the ball, we're going to open up lanes down the field.”

With a 24-0 halftime lead, Pinnacle was able to slow the tempo more in the second half, starting it off with drive lasting seven minutes, 15 seconds where Rucker shined.

He bruised and bullied the Queen Creek defense for almost all of the third quarter.

Pinnacle didn’t score in the third as Queen Creek finally scored on a 45-yard touchdown from Queen Creek receiver Nick Garcia.

The Bulldogs went for two, but failed to convert.

Pinnacle responded as Ashton Leckie scored early in the fourth quarter. The Pioneers added a two-point conversion as Marcus Libman, a senior receiver, completed a pass for two.

The offense kept rolling when Libman caught a 55-yard touchdown to put the Pioneers up 39 points.

“I think it's huge for us,” Robinson said. “We didn't play our best last week, so to come out here and do what we did this week, I think it's huge for us and I'm just really proud of our team.”

A bye week is up next for Pinnacle. After that, the Pioneers face their biggest rival, Horizon, the defending 5A state champions.

Horizon defeated Pinnacle for the first time in school history a season ago.

“It means a lot to me,” Robinson said. “Especially coming off with last year's loss, this [Horizon game] is a huge one for our team. I know we're going to use this bye week to get as prepared as possible going into the game week."