Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Arbor View stampedes Legacy to reach third straight Sunset regional final

Andrew Wagner scores two touchdowns for the Aggies

Liberty Edges Out Arbor View

L.E. Baskow

Arbor View’s Deago Stubbs (23) and Michael Sims (13) celebrate their late-game score to lead Liberty which is then taken back by penalty during their season opener on Friday, August 26, 2016.

Never has the “Battle of the Bulls” felt like a more appropriate name for the rivalry between Arbor View and Legacy High than Friday night’s Sunrise regional semifinal game.

From the opening kickoff, it was as if the two teams were angry livestock sent charging at each other from crosswise chutes. They clashed and jawed their way through the whole game.

Arbor View was the one to truly sink its horns in, impaling Legacy to a season-ending 26-14 loss.

“I think they knew they were going home so they got a little feisty and were trying to take us out of the game,” Arbor View senior fullback and linebacker Andrew Wagner said. “But we held our own. We were the victors.”

The victory was the Aggies’ fifth straight in the series, and second this year after they tamed the Longhorns 55-21 in the regular season. More important, it delivered them to their third consecutive Sunset regional championship game.

Arbor View will host Bishop Gorman at 1 p.m. next Saturday for the right to advance to the state championship.

“I’m pretty proud of this whole thing,” Arbor View coach Dan Barnson said. “Ten years ago, when I took this over, this is what I wanted. Did I know it was going to get there? I had the vision, but you don’t know.”

The Aggies rode Barnson’s double wing to the state semifinals as usual — an offense that both mauled and misdirected the Longhorns. On Arbor View’s first touchdown, most of Legacy’s defense didn’t figure out who had the ball until it was too late.

Wagner was already rumbling in for a 22-yard touchdown run.

“They never expect a fullback to take off on them, but when I hit the green, I just go,” Wagner said. “I’m fast for a fullback, and they dove for my ankles, but I take off from it.”

Legacy would tie the game at seven behind a touchdown rush from star senior running back Sam Turner — who put up 102 yards in the final game of his career — but the score stayed even for only a couple minutes. Pressure from senior defensive tackle Greg Rogers and junior defensive end Elijah Wade caused Legacy quarterback Roberto Valenzuela to commit intentional grounding in the end zone for an Arbor View safety.

The Aggies scored twice more before halftime, including once when the Longhorns appeared to again lose track of Wagner. On a 4th and 10 play from the 23-yard line, Wagner adjusted a route from out of the backfield to catch a touchdown pass from senior quarterback Hayden Bollinger.

“My gut told me to go, so we went,” Barnson said. “Hayden threw a good ball and Andrew caught a good ball. That was a big one.”

Legacy contained Arbor View’s two leading rushers on the season, juniors Deago Stubbs and Jaquari Hannie, to 18 yards and 11 yards, respectively. But Wagner trampled the Longhorns in the first half with 72 total yards.

Senior Lorenzo Mationg took over in the second half, flattening defenders en route to a team-high 97 yards on 11 carries.

“He runs downhill really well and he runs hard,” Barnson said. “A lot of the other guys were playing defense, so Lorenzo came in and he was fresh. He did that a couple weeks ago too, so maybe we’ll feed him the ball a little bit more.”

Legacy's Amorey Foster, a sophomore, returned the second-half kickoff 84 yards to the 10-yard line, but Arbor View held it out of the end zone on seven straight plays — including three of them from the 1-yard line after a penalty extended the drive. Four of the five first downs the Aggies allowed in the second half, including three on a drive late in the fourth quarter where Turner scored the Longhorns’ final points, came via their own personal foul penalties.

The chippiness was the only downside to Arbor View’s raging-bull routine.

“That will give us some motivation for next week,” Barnson said. “A lot of these kids grew up with each other, know each other. The kids are going to go after each other.”

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

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