Canyon Springs quarterback Devonte Christopher eludes Foothill's Jiles Tomita during the Pioneers' 55-26 victory in the Sunrise Regional playoffs. Photo by Jane Kalinowsky.
Foothill senior D'Angelo Jones rushed his way into the record books Thursday by breaking the state career rushing mark.
But it was Canyon Springs' relentless offense that made sure Jones will not get a chance to extend his record.
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The Pioneers racked up 511 yards of offense to overcome Jones' 323 yards rushing, and Canyon Springs defeated the Falcons 55-26 in the first round of the Sunrise Regional playoffs at Foothill.
Jones, who scored on touchdown runs of 48, 13 and 60 yards, finished his career with 7,843 yards, breaking the previous mark of 7,728 held by James Edwards of Spring Creek.
But Jones could not overcome the Pioneers' balanced offense as Canyon Springs countered with the 1-2 punch of Devonte Christopher and DeCasio Collins.
Christopher completed 9 of 18 passes for 243 yards and two scores, and Collins powered the Pioneers' ground game with 181 yards on 21 carries, including TD runs of 6, 65, 2 and 14 yards.
But Collins' key play came on defense in the fourth quarter.
Jones scored on a 60-yard run to cut Canyon Springs' lead to 40-26. Then Marquel Booker recovered an onside kick for the Falcons with 10:40 left in the game.
Foothill (7-3) drove to the Canyon Springs 19 behind Jones' rushing, but the Falcons then used Jones to throw a halfback option pass to quarterback James Silvas.
But Collins said he saw it coming.
"The coach kept screaming it was a screen, so as I was coming on the blitz, I saw the quarterback out of the corner of my eye," he said. "I saw the ball come in the air and just went for it. Then when I was running with it I was just thinking go, go, go."
Collins raced 80 yards to the end zone to seal the win.
The Pioneers will travel to Las Vegas to play at 6 p.m. on Nov. 17 in the Sunrise semifinals.
"Desire and passion was the difference tonight," Collins said. "My motivation was just to run my hardest and do the best for my team. I am not here for the records or touchdowns, just for my team to win."
Raveon Samuel had a pair of touchdown receptions for Canyon Springs (8-3). His 12-yard TD grab gave the Pioneers the lead for good, 20-13, with 3:59 left in the second quarter. He then hauled in a 45-yard scoring pass to extend the lead to 34-13 early in the third quarter.
Jones said Canyon Springs' onslaught was too much to overcome.
"Their offense is way better than us and they came ready for us tonight," Jones said. "They are loaded with so many weapons on offense our defense just couldn't stop it."
• Silverado 27, Desert Pines 26 -- At Desert Pines, the Skyhawks withstood a furious comeback by the Jaguars to advance to the Sunrise semifinals.
Silverado, which led 21-0 at halftime, watched Desert Pines score 26 unanswered points to take the lead in the fourth quarter.
The Skyhawks, who will play at Del Sol at 6 p.m. on Nov. 17, relied on the running of quarterback Kevin Rath in the first half, but used running back Telvin McMillian in the fourth quarter to regain the lead and kill the clock.
McMillian capped the game-winning drive with a 9-yard run with 5:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, then helped Silverado (9-2) run out the clock when they got the ball back with 3:13 left in the game.
"We were in a dogfight," Skyhawks coach Doug Thornhill said. "It was a good team effort. We showed some character. We could have went into the dumps, but we didn't."
The same could have been said of the Jaguars as little went their way in the first half.
Desert Pines saw its first drive stall at the Silverado 1-yard line, missed a chance at an interception during a Silverado scoring drive and let the Skyhawks convert a second-and-37 on their way to another touchdown.
Still, the Jaguars (7-4) got it together after halftime and got their running game going behind Jayson Washington, who had 24 carries for 238 yards and two touchdowns.
Jaguars running back Michael Ball, playing in his first game since dislocating his right elbow against Eldorado on Oct. 13, ran for 85 yards on 14 carries.
After scoring on their first two drives of the second half, the Jaguars recovered a short kick to set up a third touchdown in the third quarter.
Leading 21-19, Silverado drove to the Jaguars 14, but a fourth-down run was fumbled and returned 80 yards for a touchdown by Desert Pines' Charles Smith to put the Jaguars up 26-21.
-- David Garrett
• Del Sol 37, Valley 18 -- At Del Sol, Tim Johnson scored five touchdowns and had 230 yards of offense as the Dragons (9-2) rolled over the Vikings.
Johnson scored on a 34-yard run on his third carry of the game and caught a 41-yard reception for another score on the Dragons' next possession as Del Sol quickly built a 16-0 lead in the first quarter.
"The kids played well from the beginning," Del Sol coach Preston Goroff said. "We were able to lean on the run and eat up some of the clock."
Valley (3-8) cut the lead to 16-6 in the second quarter on JaCory Hawkins' 10-yard run, but the Dragons answered with two touchdowns from Johnson, who scored on runs of 15 and 2 yards, as Del Sol went ahead 30-6 at halftime.
Johnson added a 19-yard TD run in the third quarter, despite being limited to just four carries in the second half because of an ankle injury.
Johnson finished with 189 yards on 26 carries.
Del Sol's defense kept the Vikings off balance, getting four sacks and limiting Valley to just 247 yards of total offense.
-- Christian Wloszczyna
• Las Vegas 46, Green Valley 7 -- At Las Vegas, O'Ryan Bradley completed 11 of 12 passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns in limited time to help the Wildcats pound the Gators.
Las Vegas (9-2) wasted no time taking the lead, going ahead 7-0 when Jason Theard returned the opening kickoff 94 yards.
Wildcats coach Chris Faircloth said Theard's return was a key to the game.
"That put us ahead right away," he said. "I think (the Green Valley) kids got down because everything went our way and nothing went their way."
Bradley threw touchdown passes to D'Angelo Saulsberry and Chris Kelly, and he had a 68-yard scoring run to help the Wildcats build a 27-0 first-quarter lead. He came out of the game after his 40-yard TD pass to Daniel Durnian put Las Vegas ahead 33-0 with 7:15 left in the half.
Green Valley (5-6) was unable to answer, managing just 22 yards in the first half, and trailed 40-0 after Las Vegas' Kevin Cormier scored on a 3-yard run.
