Citizen Staff Writer
TC VARSITY
SANTA RITA 28
AMPHI 20
KEN BRAZZLE
kbrazzle@tucsoncitizen.com
Santa Rita High School has been blowing out opponents all season. But Amphi wouldn’t go away Friday night against the unbeaten Eagles.
Santa Rita (6-0, 3-0) stopped Amphi on 2-point conversion attempt with 1:46 left, and then the Eagles scored a clinching touchdown to beat the Panthers 28-20 in a Class 4A Gila battle.
Amphi (3-3, 1-1) trailed 21-14 entering the fourth quarter. The Panthers had the ball most of the quarter before scoring on Damian Henry’s 1-yard run to pull within 21-20.
Instead of going for a conversion kick, Amphi chose to go for a 2-point conversion. But Henry was stopped short on a run.
Amphi went for the onside kick but Santa Rita’s Greg Jones returned the ball to the Panthers’ 10-yard line.
Santa Rita quarterback Ian Garlets then ran it in from the 4-yard line to put the Eagles up by eight points.
“We played virtually emotionless,” said Santa Rita coach Jeff Scurran. “I’ve never seen our defense play that way. We came out that way . . . I don’t know what our kids thought.
“Amphi did their thing. They got a few first downs on short yardage. I thought their running backs did an excellent job of twisting and turning for extra yards.”
Henry had 22 carries for 115 yards. Quarterback Zach Roth and Ben Silvertooth also had a touchdown each for Amphi.
“We came out flatfooted in the first half,” said Garlets, who rushed for 86 yards and two touchdowns.
“We might have taken them lightly the first half. We knew we had to step it up the second half. That’s probably the most physical team we’ve played all year. We knew it was going to be like this.”
Santa Rita also got two touchdowns from running back Chris Correa, of 80 and 1 yards.