(Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Mica Mountain beat Arizona College Prep 42-13 Friday night at the Mountain America Stadium on the ASU campus to win the first 4A state championship in school history. Well, the first team championship of any kind for the school playing at the varsity level in only its third full year. Head coach Pat Nugent went a perfect 14-0 behind a stingy defense and an explosive offense, guided by 31 seniors. Nugent’s time had finally come after coming so close once before.

It seems like it happened last week, not some 17 years ago. Down 20-7 to Saguaro with 6:05 left in the 2007 4A-I state championship game played at what was once called the “University of Phoenix Stadium,” Canyon del Oro took a 21-20 lead with 3:09 left, only to see Steven Chiappetti kick a 30-yard field goal with two seconds left to beat the Dorados 23-21. That’s how close current Thunderbolt head coach Nugent was to capturing his first championship when he held the same position at CDO. 17 years.

In that time, Nugent went on to coach at Pima College, leaving behind a young Ka’Deem Carey, and the Dorados would go undefeated two years later to win a state championship over Sabino under Nugent protégé, Dusty Peace. Peace beat former Sabino head coach, and current Mica Mountain assistant principal, Jay Campos that day and then Peace won it all again last fall when he coached the Dorados to another perfect 14-0 season before retiring with a 119-50 career record.

Nugent left Pima College for a successful stint at Cienega, replacing legendary head coach Nemer Hassey in 2015. Hassey became the principal at Cienega and he took the same administrative position at newly constructed Mica Mountain in 2019 during the planning stages. Hassey brought in Campos as one of his assistants and Nugent made the move from Cienega to Mica Mountain in 2021.

That trio of football masterminds were so good, so quickly, that the program almost made the state playoffs in 2021 despite going 3-3 as an independent squad. The Thunderbolts missed the state playoffs by one spot in the state rankings. On that team was freshman quarterback Jayden Thoreson and freshman running back Josiah Thornwell. Jimmy Leon transferred over from Salpointe the following year. The stage was set.

On the other side, AZ College Prep was led by first-year head coach Steve Vaught, who was promoted to the top position in January. Vaught had previous experience coaching the vaunted Chandler defense to two Open Division championships before moving over to coach the Knights. The Knights started out as a 2A program in 2017 and the wins were hard to come by until Vaught had them moving under former head coach Myron Blueford last year. The Knights took eventual state champion CDO to four overtimes in the quarterfinal round last year and one could tell this year was going to be as special as it turned out to be.

AZ College Prep went 9-1 in the regular season this fall with the loss coming at Crown Point, Indiana. The finish earned the Knights a No. 2 ranking and the stage was set against No. 4 Mica Mountain Friday night.

The Bolts took the opening kick and three huge penalties gave Mica Mountain excellent field position and then Thorwell cashed in on a short run to give Mica Mountain a 7-0 lead with 8:36 left in the first. The Mica Mountain defense only gave up 69 yards in the opening quarter and a punt by the Knights led to a 42-yard scoring run from Thoreson to put his team up 14-0 with 7:05 left.

Tyler Lowder cut the lead down to 14-7 on a 19-yard run 3:39 left but Thornwell scored again to make it 21-7 with 31 seconds left. The Bolts had 166 yards of offense at that point and it looked like the game was going to get out of hand quickly but a 53-yard pass from Thoreson to Riley Carson with 6:34 left in the half was the only scoring of the second quarter. Still, the Bolts had 325 yards of offense compared to 117 for the Knights at that point.

Evan Heinrich scored from two yards out to cut the lead down to 28-13 with 7:18 left in the third after a failed two-point conversion and it looked like the Knights were back in it until Thornwell scored again to make it 35-13 with 4:05 left in the third. The Mica Mountain defense stopped the Knights in a goal line stand with 11:03 left in the game which turned into the fourth TD from Thornwell to make it 42-13 with 6:19 left.

Mica Mountain almost scored again as time was expiring but backup QB Jaidyn Crist slid down at the three after going untouched to give senior Conner Hangartner the opportunity to take a knee from the victory formation. Hangartner suffered an injury in the first game of the season and he was called upon to take a victory knee in the last three playoff games.

It’s clear Vaught will be back. He’s that good and he has a winning culture with the Knights but, what’s not clear is the future of Nugent. With a career record of 172-66 from stints at Flowing Wells, Canyon del Oro, Cienega and Mica Mountain, Nugent is rumored to be retiring with a championship trophy. He almost stepped away this year so he could watch his senior daughter play volleyball but he got the best of both opportunities after he made time to watch Jayden Nugent help lead Mica Mountain to a 4A runner-up finish after suffering an injury last year.

Thornwell finished with 182 yards rushing on 19 carries with four TDs. Thoreson had 73 yards rushing to go with 183 yards passing. Leon had 70 yards receiving and Crason had 60. Brodent Schmidt had eight tackles, as did Ben Weinzinger. For AZ College Prep, Heinrich had 93 yards passing, Lowder had 61 yards rushing and Kash Lambert had 41 yrds receiving. Cam Mitchell collected 11 tackles.

 

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