Shamrocks headed to state championship, knock out San Tan Foothills

PHOENIX — There was no stopping Andy Determan.

Determan reached the end zone four times in Yuma Catholic's 51-15 win over San Tan Foothills on Saturday at Arcadia High School in Phoenix in a Division V semifinal.

With the win, the Shamrocks are headed back to the state championship for the second year in a row.

“We're excited,” YC coach Rhett Stallworth said. “To get back to the state championship game — that was our goal and here we are. We're ready to get after them.”

Stallworth said that running the ball wasn't exactly the plan going into Saturday's game but it certainly worked in their favor.

“What they did on defense is they made a conscious effort to take away our pass,” Stallworth said. “They had six defenders in the secondary and only five up front in the box. If that's what they're going to give us then that's what we're going to take. We're pretty balanced so we're just going to pick our poison and go.

“We're a balanced offense. We just line up, see what they're going to do and then we're going to go from there and that's what happened tonight.”

Determan didn't have many explosive plays for big yards in the game, in fact his longest touchdown run was only for 7 yards. But it was his hard-nosed determination to get to the end zone that really made him a force to be reckoned with.

“We knew they were going to come out tough, so we had to do the same,” said Determan, who had 10 carries for 117 yards. “We had to make some adjustments and we did and we were able to execute.”

Determan was all smiles after the game. After all, it's not every day that he gets four touchdowns.

“I don't normally score too many touchdowns,” Determan said. “It feels good. But honestly I don't really care who scores the touchdowns as long as we have more points than they do at the end of the day.”

Kody Hazlett was the other piece to the Shamrock's offensive puzzle. The junior running back had 24 carries for 165 yards and two touchdowns in the game.

The Shamrocks will face Northwest Christian for the state championship title. YC lost to the Crusdaers in last year's title tilt and in this year's season opener.

“We've played them (NWC) four times and they've beat us four times,” Stallworth said. “I think right now they're the odds to win favorite again but we've got a whole new team from last year…They're a team that's been around and they returned everybody but I think one guy.

“So, we're just taking a new bunch of kids to the state championship and we're going to give it all we've got and we're not going to lay down. We're going to make everybody proud that follows us. We're going to fight until the end.”