Nate Tropea
ASU Student Journalist

Cactus ends Desert Edge's winning streak

October 27, 2023 by Nate Tropea, Arizona State University


Raymond Jones leads the Cactus onto the field before the game versus Desert Edge. (Nathaniel Tropea photo/AZPreps365)

Nathaniel Tropea is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cactus High School for AZPreps365.com

Cactus brought Desert Edge’s seven-game winning streak to a halt, taking a big 5A Desert West Region game win of 33-27.

“I feel amazing," Kadin Huisinga said. "Senior night we won. (Desert Edge) supposed to project and beat us every year and we always win.”.  

On Desert Edge’s first pass, Braiden Lagafuaina recovered a bad pass giving the Cobras another chance after struggling on its first possession. 

The rest of the first quarter was a battle between the defenses. 

No one scored in the first quarter ending.

The start of the second quarter gave Cactus the first touchdown of the game by Julian Stubblefield, 7-0.

Desert Edge didn’t take long to respond and tied the game on its next possession, 7-7.

A pass by Antonio Casias to Julian Stubblefield gave the Cobras the lead, 14-7.

On the Scropions' last drive of the first half, they were picked off in the Cobra's end zone by Deven Caleb.

The Cobras run the clock down to the half holding onto the lead. 

At the start of the second half Desert Edge received the ball making its way downfield to tie the game. 

However, Cactus did not leave that unanswered. 

As Cactus worked its way back toward the Scorpion's end zone, Nikko Boncore scored another touchdown giving them the lead back, 21-14.

Desert Edge fumbled the ball and Cactus recovers in the red zone.

Tevin Marrufo scores another Cactus touchdown extending the lead, 27-14. 

“I was part of that offense…” Gabriel Sotelo said. “I felt we did great. We exceeded, we had a great practice.”

As the fourth quarter played out, Desert Edge put up another touchdown as well, 27-21. Slowly creeping up.

Cactus got the ball again before the game is over and was looking to add some insurance points to the lead.

Tevin Marrufo scored again extending the Cobras’ lead 33-21 just before two minutes left in the game.

The Scorpions still wanted to keep playing and capped the game off at the buzzer with one more touchdown, 33-27 giving Cactus the game.

The Cobras now go up against more competition next Friday against Millennium. 

Lagafuaina said the win gives them confidence headed toward the end of the regular season and beyond.

“We have momentum right now, but we have to come in Monday and get our game plan together and lock it back in and get that last win,” he said.