T.J. Webb, Palo Verde torch Legacy to earn home playoff game

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015 | 1:32 a.m.

With his coaches yelling, “fire,” T.J. Webb must have felt like water.

The Palo Verde senior flowed right into the danger, and came out more than unscathed. He came out victorious.

Webb corralled a first-quarter punt off a bounce against Legacy Friday night that those on his sideline warned to avoid. He broke a tackle, cut away from another group of defenders and went 62 yards for a touchdown to give Palo Verde a lead it never surrendered in a 20-7 victory.

“It’s the universal call to get away from the punt,” Palo Verde coach Joe Azanrez grinned. “But I couldn’t be happier with the return.”

Webb helped Palo Verde clinch a home playoff game with a shot for the Sunset Southwest league championship in a game next week at Bishop Gorman. The victory on senior night was the Panthers’ third straight.

It made the memories of a four-game losing streak suffered last month feel distant.

“We were sick of losing and knew we had to win conference games for our playoff and home-field chances,” Webb said. “So we bought in and started to take it more serious.”

Part of buying-in ahead of the game against the Longhorns was implementing defensive adjustments to account for Tiger Geeslin, one of the valley’s top running backs. Palo Verde built a strategy on slowing the star Legacy senior.

They never had to evacuate the plan. Senior standouts Chauntez Thomas and Kameron Toomer routinely stuffed Geeslin, holding him to 35 yards on 13 carries.

Legacy gained less than 3 yards per rush in total.

“It’s always our mindset to be the more physical team, and I thought our guys did that tonight,” Aznarez said. “(Geeslin) had a big game against the private school last week, so we saw it as a challenge.”

Legacy junior Samuel Turner returned the opening kickoff 57 yards to Palo Verde’s 31-yard line. The Longhorns made use of the field position on a 33-yard reverse flea-flicker touchdown pass from Tanoa Alapati to Ahmyreon Culpepper on the ensuing fourth down to go up 7-0.

They would only muster 85 more yards of offense and five nonpenalty first downs for the rest of the night. Palo Verde wasn’t exactly explosive on offense, either.

But the Panthers muscled their way down the field consistently. To answer the Longhorns’ score, they manufactured an 11-play, six-minute drive that senior Aaron Chisolm finished with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Palo Verde marched behind Chisolm, who had 20 carries for 94 yards, and senior Christian Bell, who ran 15 times for 118 yards and a touchdown, throughout the win.

“I told the coaches before the game we were going to have to hit a lot of singles and doubles because our home-run hitter, Thaddeus Wiley, was out,” Aznarez said. “So we had to take chunks of yardage and do that sort of thing. That’s what those backs are good at — taking care of the ball, moving their feet, moving the pile.”

The Panthers were just as imposing on defense. Every time Legacy threatened, Palo Verde answered.

Senior linebacker Kavika Covington blew up a play in the backfield in the third quarter and recovered a fumble after the Longhorns drove to the Panthers’ 27-yard line. On Legacy’s next possession, senior cornerback Noah Floyd intercepted a pass.

Palo Verde forced three three-and-outs, including one on Legacy’s second drive when Webb made an open-field tackle on third down. Webb set himself up for his own heroics, as the next play was when he sprinted into the figurative flames to put Palo Verde ahead 14-7.

“I told him it was about time that he did it,” Aznarez said. “I give him a hard time all the time in practice, but it was a good time to do it on your senior night.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.