Mountain Pointe senior Paul Lucas may be nation's fastest football player

There's no substitute for Paul Lucas. None. Nobody.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior running back for Mountain Pointe (Phoenix) is probably the fastest football player in the country.

Last spring, Lucas ran the 11th-fastest 100-meter track and field time in the country at 10.42 seconds, eighth-fastest 200 (20.84) and 19th-best 400 (46.86).

That's a triple no one could match in the country.

Add a wind-aided 24-foot, 4.5-inch long jump and you're talking a track and field athlete extraordinaire.

But Mountain Pointe football coach Norris Vaughan isn't talking track and field at all.

"He's a football player who runs track and field," Vaughan maintains.

Lucas himself said he's just "an athlete" who loves both sports.

"I want to do track and football as long as I can," he told sports360az.com. "Through high school, college and maybe even the pros if I can. I want to do both until I am forced to choose one."

Nevertheless, when Mountain Pointe (4-0), the nation's No. 17 team, hosts the country's No. 24 team Chandler (3-0) — in the MaxPreps National Game of the Week — there is no greater threat to break a long one than Lucas.

All eyes will be upon him.

"At any level, the No. 1 trait every scout, every coach looks at first is speed," Vaughan said. "And no one around here or anywhere else is faster than Paul. He just gets up and go."

Through four weeks of lopsided play — Mountain Pointe has outscored its opponents 251-19 — Vaughan has used Lucas sparingly. He's had just 23 touches but for 371 yards and five touchdowns.

The five-time state track and field champion also returned his one kickoff 84 yards for a score.

"He definitely gives us a dimension few teams can match," Vaughan said.

He used Lucas much the same last season, giving him 105 rushing attempts for 1,008 yards and 12 touchdowns.

When it counted most, however, in the state title game, Lucas rushed 13 times for 159 yards leading Mountain Pointe to its first state title, 42-19 over Hamilton.

"We all said before we felt this was our time," Lucas said after the game. "We weren't going to be denied."

Ranked the No. 3 recruit overall in Arizona by 247Sports, and the eighth-best all purpose back in the country, Lucas is mulling over offers from Arizona State, Arizona, Notre Dame, Oregon State, UCLA and Tennessee, among others.

Right now, he's focused completely on Mountain Pointe football, and beating Chandler, which has a major score to settle.

Last season, Mountain Pointe went to Chandler and delivered a 38-14 victory.

"Last year was great but it's gone," Vaughan said. "We have a chance to be as good or better than last year in many areas. We're young at many positions so we're only going to get better and better."

Lucas is used to the big stage and thrives there. As a sophomore he beat current Oregon redshirt freshman and reigning NCAA champion Devon Allen in the 100-meter state finals.

Allen is one of the state's best all-around athletes. But Lucas, quiet and reserved by nature, edged him 10.44 to 10.56.

"I'm trying to be, at the end of it, the fastest athlete to ever come out of Arizona," Lucas told reporters after the race.

On Friday, he simply wants to be the fastest to the end zone.