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Marcos Bueno (1) makes a highlight-reel catch during Saturday’s 1A State Playoff Semifinal game.
The season wasn’t supposed to end this way for the second-ranked Superior football team.
But it did, and it hurts.
For the second year in a row, the Panthers’ dreams of taking a state title back to Superior ended in a semifinals loss at Maricopa High School, the most recent a 42 – 40 overtime loss to No. 3 Williams last Saturday.
“First of all, Williams deserves a lot of credit,” Panthers’ head coach Ryan Palmer told the Superior Sun. “Their players made some big plays in big moments. I know that our kids played their hearts out, but we did not have enough to put the game the away when we needed to.”
Nicolaus Cruz (12) of Suerpior just misses making an interception against Williams on Saturday.
After Williams erased a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit, the Panthers still had a chance to continue chasing their dreams, facing a first-and-goal from the four-yard line with less than a minute to play and the game tied, 34 – 34. But the Vikings came up with a goal-line stand, stopping the Panthers on four-straight plays to force overtime.
Superior won the toss in OT and chose to play defense first. Williams’ Martin Soria scored on the second play from five yards out and his pass to Daniel Lopez converted the two-point PAT.
The Panthers need to score a touchdown and convert a two-point PAT to force a second overtime. The first part was easy enough with quarterback Nicolaus Cruz finding Steven Ybarra on the first play for a 10-yard touchdown. It was the second part that proved to be difficult as the conversion attempt failed, and with that the Panthers’ season ended.
“We had many opportunities to win that game, but we just could not get it done,” Palmer said. Palmer told his team at midfield after the game that the loss hurts because the players, coaches and community cared so much.
That’s undoubtedly true.
But it also hurts because the Panthers had opportunities to win the game, despite being outnumbered and out of gas. The Vikings’ roster listed 37 players, more than twice as many as the Panthers.
“Some of our key players were exhausted after the first quarter,” said Palmer. “Williams had half their team playing one way, and on a hot afternoon, on a draining field that was the difference.”
It hurts because arguably the school’s greatest collection of seniors, who have been playing together since elementary school, along with a group of talented underclassmen deserved to go out as champions.
But football is known to teach life-long lessons and the Panthers’ players learned a hard one on Saturday.
“Even when you work so hard to achieve something you can still fail, but it is not always about winning or losing,” Palmer said. “It is about the value of hard work and a commitment to team, school, and community.”
In that sense, it’s impossible to view the Panthers’ season as anything other than a success. They were committed to working hard and they did, like they never had before in the offseason, according to Palmer.
They represented their town and school with class.
And they were dynamic; a fun team to watch every Friday night and one Saturday afternoon, even in defeat.
“Even though we fell short of our ultimate goal, these young men have learned more about the values of discipline, desire, dedication, and self-respect in a single season that some ever will,” Palmer said. “Football doesn’t only build character, it reveals it, and I am honored to have coached such a high-character group of young men.”
Before the season, senior running back Edgar Galindo, in a season-preview video, said that it was time for the Panthers to “put up or shut up.”
After the game last Saturday, there were no words.
Just tears.
That hurts.
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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