Cienega stalls in semifinals, reflects on memorable season

Cienega’s football team put together a perfect regular season and rolled through two playoff games to pull within one win of its second state championship appearance in program history.

But for everything the Bobcats have to remember about their 2016 season, Friday night provided plenty to forget.

Fifth-seeded Peoria Centennial jumped out to a big lead early and cruised to a 56-21 win against top-seeded and undefeated Cienega in the 5A state semifinals at Tucson High. The season-ending loss snapped a 15-game winning streak by the Bobcats, which coincidentally began on that same field on Oct. 16 of last year.

“There’s only one team happy at the end,” Cienega coach Pat Nugent said. “It wasn’t what we expected tonight, it just wasn’t the Bobcats we knew and loved the past 13 weeks.”

Although Cienega was eliminated from the 5A playoffs on Friday and Salpointe Catholic fell in a 4A state semifinal game, it wasn’t all bad news for Tucson-area teams. Sixth-seeded Catalina Foothills rolled to a 62-37 win against No. 2 Gilbert Higley to secure a spot in next weekend’s 4A state championship game against three-time defending champion Scottsdale Saguaro.

Centennial, which its going for its third straight title next weekend, led 28-0 on Friday night before Cienega recorded a first down. Junior running back Zidane Thomas rushed for a whopping 324 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries to singlehandedly out-gain and outscore the Bobcats.

“We just couldn’t stop the run tonight,” Nugent said. “We could stop No. 2 tonight, he was amazing.”

Cienega made things interesting midway through the game. Senior running back Aaron Sauls got his team on the board with a 2-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter and then fellow senior Nico Jordan scored on a 1-yard run to make it a 14-point game, with Centennial ahead 28-14.

Then, after the Bobcats came up with a defensive stop, it looked like the stage was set for another score. Instead, Cienega went three-and-out and Centennial pushed its lead to 35-14 on its next possession. Then, the Coyotes went up 42-14 shortly after an interception, putting it out of reach.

“Obviously no one wants it to end like this but this season was amazing,” senior captain Bryce Fontana said. “It was more than I could ask for coming off the 4-6 season. We just wanted to take it one game at a time and the fact that we had the undefeated season, we won the region, we won those 12 games it was really special.”

Junior quarterback Jamarye Joiner echoed Fontana’s thoughts on how special this year was, after transferring from Salpointe Catholic. Joiner accepted a scholarship offer to play for the Arizona Wildcats earlier this fall but he says it wouldn’t have been possible without this group.

“The highlight of this year was going undefeated,” Joiner said. “That just tops everything, even my offer, because this is the team that helped me get that offer. This is the team that helps me get my stats and helps me do everything. Without this team I couldn’t do anything.”