VarsityXtra

Last week’s 5A East Valley Region games were as advertised. Expect more of the same the rest of the season.

This week Mesa Red Mountain visits Westwood in a Thursday night game and Dobson travels to Mesa High to take on the Jackrabbits. The region lidlifters last week went down to the final minute with Westwood beating Dobson by five and Mountain View edging Mesa by four. These teams are pretty evenly matched and really not knowing who is going to win doubles the fun going out to view them. If you’re a football fan in general an easy way to choose a game is to visit a game involving the five East Valley Region schools. It doesn’t figure many of those games will disappoint.

P.S. –

Desert Vista coach Dan Hinds and St. Mary’s coach Pat Farrell are as cordial as they come, but not Friday night.

The Thunder took a 31-7 lead midway through the third quarter when they recovered their own onside kick, which had Farrell ranting from the opposite sideline.

Then after St. Mary’s kicked a field goal in the final three minutes of the fourth, the Knights still trailed 38-10 when they recovered an onside kick. On the next play, a crunching sack led to a fumble which Desert Vista’s Devon Kennard returned 69 yards for a touchdown.

That steamed Farrell more.

Afterward, Farrell was uncharacteristically ticked by the night’s events, and barely stopped to talk about the game en route to the bus, which extremely rare for Pat, regardless of any game’s outcome.

“I guess my only question is when does an opponent put in substitutes?” he quipped. “Unbelievable.”

Hinds said the onside kick was supposed to be a squib, but kicker Brock Jolly missed. He also pointed out that the Knights’ Jacob Santa Cruz returned multiple kickoffs with success against Desert Vista, which is why they went to the squib (which they also did on the following kickoff).

As for having some of his starting defensive players still playing in the fourth quarter, Hinds didn’t want to touch that one.