A classic turned into a clunker at Mesa Red Mountain on Friday night. It left one coach (Red Mountain’s Jim Jones) hot under the collar and unsure of his future, while the other team (Mesa High) whooped it up after winning its first football playoff game since 2000.
It sets up a Fiesta Region rematch (which was exactly what nobody in the region wanted to deal with, even though losing was the only way to avoid such collisions).
Mesa will play at Phoenix College against Brophy, where the Jackrabbits lost 26-18 in mid-October, a game closer than the score indicates (and the score indicates a close game).
What a job Mesa’s defense did to Red Mountain’s offense (except for one drive in the third quarter which briefly put Red Mountain back in the game, mostly because the Lions remembered they have a good QB in John O’Connor and a good WR in Elizha Cordova). Oddly enough, the Lions never went back to the hurry-up, line-up-and-throw style after that drive the rest of the game.
More importantly, what a job Kelley Moore has done in three years at Mesa.
As for Red Mountain, Jim Jones’ team lost a few key starting linemen to injuries during region play, which is also when his team couldn’t stop the likes of Phoenix Brophy, Chandler Hamilton, Chandler and 5A-II power Peoria Centennial.
Jones groused about Mesa Mountain View not being in the Fiesta Region while Mesa and Red Mountain were.
His point: If it was supposed to be about geography, where’s the geography?
“It’s a damn shame they had to go through a schedule like we did,” he said. “It’s not fair to anyone in Arizona high school football.”
It’s a good point.
Let’s at least throw out the possibility there was anger and frustration involved because his team had just been kicked in the teeth by Mesa to end its season.
Then again, the Jackrabbits lost a slew of close games during region play and lost power points because of the Laveen Cesar Chavez debacle. The Jackrabbits never said a word.
(Incidentally, neither did Phoenix Desert Vista, and if this really was about competitive balance and putting all the perennially premier teams in one region, Desert Vista belongs in the Central).
As for Jones, he’s Red Mountain’s only football coach since it opened in 1989. This may have been his last game as the school’s coach, but he wasn’t about to tip his hand one way or another afterward.
One way or another, though, his decision won’t drag on, but a sour ending to a strong start this season wouldn’t be fair after 20 years.
Although it may sound like sour grapes from Jones, what he said is what everyone else is thinking. I don’t care either way for Jones, but at least he said something on record about how the situation is a bunch of crap. And even though he didn’t “tip his hand” about his future, you can probably bet that him sounding off is an indication that he wants to be done. Mesa’s coach Moore won’t say it because he is classy, but guarantee he’s thinking the same thing. Bottom line is that the region pairings aren’t what they say they are supposed to be - based on Geography.