The Queen Creek-Desert Vista meeting Friday night was typical among the top four teams in the 6A Central Region -- those being Highland, Desert Vista, Queen Creek and Mountain Pointe.

This matchup No. 5 Desert Vista and No. 7 Queen Creek didn't appear it would go down to the wire in the early moments of the fourth period, but that's what happened as the Thunder pleased a Senior Night and Homecoming crowd with a 35-28 victory at Thunder Stadium.

Desert Vista finished 9-1 for the regular season - its best finish to that point since it last won a state title in 2011. Queen Creek's first run in the biggest classification continues next week, but hosting a home game is iffy. The Bulldogs (7-3) need to finish in the top eight for that to happen. Eight of the top 10 teams in the 6A rankings won on Friday and No. 9 Brophy was idle.

The final power-rankings and playoff pairings for 6A-2A will be revealed Saturday morning beginning a 9.

Desert Vista, which led 21-7 at halftime thanks in great part to a pair of touchdows from Taron Thomas -- a 97-yard kickoff return and a 24-yard reception. The Thunder secured a 35-14 lead with a minute gone in the fourth period, but had to ward off Queen Creek's never-say-die effort. The Bulldogs scored twice in two minutes on a pair of Dayson Coleman touchdown runs to pare the deficit to 35-28 with 6:18 to play.

Queen Creek secured a final possession with 1:53 left,  no timeouts and the ball on the Bulldogs' 8. Sophomore quarterback Trey Reynolds, subbing for injured starter Devin Larsen, had a gutty performance in his debut as a starter. He ran  11 yards for a first down to get Queen Creek out of the shadow of its end zone. Two completions of of 30 and 21 yards helped move the team to Desert Vista's 34.

But with four seconds left Reynolds was picked for a second time in the game on a desperation throw inside the 10. Desert Vista's Elijah Ervin made the interception, capping a big night for him. Reynolds rushed for 100 yards on 13 carries and was 9 of 19 passing for 108 yards.

"Queen Creek's a really good team," Desert Vista coach Dan Hinds said. "I kind of figured this game would go down to the end like it did."

Ervin was the receiver of the game. He caught four passes for 85 yards and a TD in the first half and followed up in the second with three more grabs for 69 yards. Ervin hauled in a 28-yard reception that keyed an 80-yard scoring march after Queen Creek grabbed momentum for a scoring drive and recovery of an onside kick.

The Thunder ultimately forced a field goal attempt from 50 yard  on a possession that could have tied the game. Desert Vista scored three plays after Ervin's catch with freshman Devon Grubbs scoring the first of his two second-half touchdowns. Grubbs was held to 28 yards rushing in the first half, but finished with 24 carries for 101 yards.