Desert Mountain displayed  the hot hand Wednesday by taking the team lead and sharing the individual lead at the Division I state boys golf tournament at Aguila Golf Course in in Leveen.

Desert Mountain's top four players combined for a 4-under par total (284) for a six-shot lead over second-place Brophy Prep (290). Hamilton, the defending champion, is third (293) and Sandra Day O'Connor is fourth (297).

Desert Mountain senior Matt McCarty, a top-20 finisher in last year's tournament, shares the top spot for medalist honors at -3 with Highland junior Brock Goyen. Goyen's state tournament history is quite a journey.

Goyen played in last year's state tournament and won, but was later disqualified for breaking an AIA tournament rule. Goyen played the tournament course (which happened to be Aguila) a couple days before the tournament, which is prohibiited by AIA rules. 

Two weeks after winning the tournament on the course, Highland's team was placed on probation after self-reporting the violation to the AIA's executive board, which meant Highland could not compete at state this year. Goyen was also disqualified from the tournament and had to relinquish his medal.  He did afterward, personnally delivering it to runner-up Jino Sohn of Hamilton, the revised medalist.

Highland came back to the board in September with new information via appeal and convinced the executive board to reduce Highland's golf team's penalty to warning instead of probation. That allowed Highland's team and or Goyen to compete this year if they qualified. Goyen's disqualification from last year stood.

McCarty's round featured six birdies and three bogeys and he was in the clubhouse with lead over Goyen while Goyen finished his round. Goyen moved into contention with his final nine holes suppyling his 3-under par total --- he  parred the  first 11 holes and added two birdies, an eagle and bogey to conclude his round. 

While McCarty and Goyen are the leaders, their advantage is tenuous. Fourteen more golfers are at even par or better.  McCarty teammates Chase Wicklund and David Riccciardelli and Mountain Ridge's Brian Seo are at -2. Sandra Day o'Connor's Beaun Reutter and Noah Robinson, Buena's Briggs Duce, Brophy's Chris Getz, Gilbert's Wahid Hammed, Hamiton's Trueman Park and Pinnacle's Isaac Spillum are at -1. At even par are Thunderbird's Jake Chanen, Brophy's Michael Feagles and Reed Porter and Notre Dame Prep's JJ Gresco.

The final round is Thursday with the first group teeing off at 7:45 a.m. Most of the top 20 will tee off between 9:15 and 9:45. McCarty and Goyen team off in separate groups at 9:29 -- McCarty from the No. 1 tee and Goyen from No. 10.