[ad_1]
How wide is the gap between programs? Can St. Mary’s make a statement that it’s catching up to Brophy Prep?
Now is the time to prove it.
What was once the best Phoenix-area high school football rivalry among big schools is back.
On Friday night, St. Mary’s will face Brophy Prep at Phoenix Central, which has a great new turf field but the stands hardly will be big enough to hold the number of fans who have waited nine years for these two proud private, Catholic schools to play again.
It’s been 2012 since they last met. In the last two meetings, Brophy won by scores of 63-0 and 58-6.
Suddenly, the rivalry was dropped.
Brophy Prep stayed in the top conference (6A) since then. St. Mary’s fell to 4A. And not just because of enrollment numbers. The Knights struggled to stay competitive after winning state championships in the late 1960s with Ed Doherty and in the 1980s and ’90s under Pat Farrell.
It took an alum, Jose Lucero, and Brophy Prep coach Jason Jewell, a former recruiting service guru, who embraces history, to get this game back.
Lucero texted back and forth in the offseason with Jewell. Both schools’ administration was supportive of the rivalry renewal.
They were going to scrimmage each other before the start of last season, but COVID-19 eliminated that.
Even a scrimmage probably would have filled a stadium for Brophy and St. Mary’s.
“The game has already pre-sold 1,000 tickets and we are expecting a packed house, considering our freshman game was standing room only last night,” Jewell said. “This is going to be fun.”
More: Super 8: Arizona high school football Open Division 2021 predictions
St. Mary’s quarterback Nick Martinez has had a full offseason, a June of 7-on-7s, to get ready for this game.
“When it first got announced, the whole team talked a whole bunch of hype about it,” Martinez said. “A whole bunch of us went to elementary school with them. We know them as mutual friends. A lot of competition.
St. Mary’s ready to resume rivalry
St. Mary’s High School football team is preparing to face Brophy, a renewal of a rivalry that at one time was the most prominent in the Phoenix area.
Richard Obert, Arizona Republic
“I say, ‘Shock the world,’ but these other kids is, ‘Just let them know who St. Mary’s is.’ Let them know that we are somebody.”
The recruiting scale tips heavily in Brophy’s favor.
Senior cornerback Ben Morrison (Notre Dame), tight end Tyler Powell (Arizona) and defensive end Zac Swanson (Texas) are all committed to Power 5 colleges. Quarterback Elijah Warner wants to prove he is back after missing almost all of last season with a leg injury.
Brophy is eager to get back in the win column after going winless during last year’s COVID-challenged year.
St. Mary’s still is relishing its first playoff win in 20 years in Lucero’s first season as head coach.
The Knights still have no field. Just a city park across the street from campus that they use. That’s if they can get on it. Last year, the City of Phoenix shut down the parks due to the pandemic and the Knights had to travel to an elementary school, St. Agnes, for practices.
But the Knights wouldn’t be the Knights if it didn’t have to deal with adversity. They took pride in that in the late 1960s when Doherty started the gold playoff pants tradition, and it stayed that way with alums Pat Lavin, Farrell and John Rodriguez leading the program.
It was after Ron Estabrook began building Scottsdale Chaparral into a powerhouse in the late ’90s that the Knights started to lose their luster. St. Mary’s draws from all over Maricopa County and Scottsdale once was a big area of talent that attracted players to St. Mary’s.
Then when the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix opened Notre Dame Prep in northeast Scottsdale in 2002, that also impacted the talent coming through St. Mary’s. Not to mention that Brophy Prep was rolling under Scooter Molander with two state titles in the early 2000s.
The schools faced each other 55 times between 1959 and 2012. Despite getting blown out in the last two meetings, St. Mary’s holds a 30-25 lead in the series. The average margin of victory in the games in their history is two points.
Throw out records. Throw out conference affiliations. When these schools meet, none of that matters.
“We know that St. Mary’s and Brophy is an important rivalry,” said Lucero, who played for Rodriguez. “Our kids are going to go out and play hard and play disciplined. We’ll see where we’re at. We’re just excited to have the opportunity to play them again.”
Jewell said the community is excited about this game. He’s got Kevin Scott, a former standout player for St. Mary’s during the Farrell heyday era, on his staff.
“We have worked extremely hard to instill in our players what this game means to our alumni,” Jewell said. “We have brought back former players and coaches, including former head coach Tim Sanford, to speak to our kids and explain it. Because in reality, the last time Brophy and St. Mary’s played, our kids were in elementary school.”
More: Arizona high school football Week 3 schedule, Richard Obert’s picks
Martinez was given a history lesson this week from Farrell, who also talked to Lucero about how to approach this game. Farrell should know. He won 18 meetings against Brophy during his St. Mary’s coaching tenure. No other coach between the schools won more than seven. Molander won seven of the meetings as Brophy’s coach, including the last two blowouts by the Broncos.
“It’s just a bunch of 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids,” Martinez said.
Cody Arriaga, a 5-foot-8, 240-pound senior guard and defensive lineman, epitomizes the Knights. Small but tough and carries a huge heart.
He has family who has gone through St. Mary’s. And knows what this game means.
“We knew we were going to scrimmage them last year and then it didn’t happen,” Arriaga said. “I was surprised it became an actual game this year.”
Senior receiver/defensive back P.J. Lewis said he had a cousin who played for St. Mary’s against Brophy Prep. He said there’s a buzz on campus. Talk about alumni coming.
He’s pumped for this.
“They might have a lot more D.I prospects than us,” Lewis said. “But it doesn’t mean they’re a better team than us. We have a great team over here. As long as we go play and do what we can do, we can come out with a win.”
To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at [email protected] or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.
Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today
[ad_2]
Source link