With his seven catches for 134 yards, including scoring the team’s only touchdown on a 27-yard pass on Friday, wide receiver Jon McCune put the finishing touches on his record-breaking season. Not only did het set a school record for receiving yards in a single game this year, 218 against Tempe earlier this season, McCune also set a new AJHS record for single-season receiving yards with 974 yards on 50 receptions. McCune also scored eight touchdowns through the air.
Aside from McCune having a big night, and sporadic defensive gems from linebackers Caleb Williams, Cisco Valenzuela and Matt Varnes, the game was all Poston Butte.
On offense, the Broncos rambled for 363 yards on the ground, threw for 137 more, led 31-0 at halftime, and even tacked on a twopoint conversion when leading by leading by 42 points late in the third quarter.
On defense, Poston Butte intercepted Prospector quarterback Brett Darling four times and came up with five sacks.
Darling had a rough night, completing 11-of-32 passes for 168 yards, four picks, and the lone TD toss to McCune. But he also didn’t get a lot of help from his receivers, who ran wrong routes at times, and dropped a few passes at times.
Senior running back Bronson Morgan rushed 13 times for 67 yards and senior wide receiver Branden Edwards caught four passes for 34 yards.
Williams was in on 10 tackles for the Prospector defense, two for losses, and came up with a fumble strip. Valenzuela was also in on 10 tackles. Varnes and lineman Hunter Hallford were both in on six tackles, and Ricky Gonzales, Kollin Day, Chase Larson, Cody Morgan and Williams Rosales were involved in three-to-four defensive stops.
Defensive back Gabriel Salazar was in on two tackles and came up with the fumble recovery on the strip by Williams.
It was a difficult and challenging season for the Prospectors and interim head coach Jeff Rathjen. Apache Junction was outscored 523 to 134 in their ten games, and 40 of their points came in their lone victory over Combs.
It was also a season that saw its share of injuries. Senior lineman Kegan Green, one of the team leaders, was injured in the first game of the season and sat out the remainder. Edwards, who held the school record for single-season receiving yards with 642 yards from last season, missed five games with an injury. Williams sat out several games with a bum shoulder, Varnes missed a couple of games, and senior linebacker Jacob Diaz, the early season leader in tackles, missed the last few games with his injury.
by Chuck Barker
