It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but the Higley Knights had no problem doing just that on Friday. Everything went their way against Millennium as Higley made off with a 43-23 win. Higley might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team's won six matchups by 20 points or more this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Higley to victory, but perhaps none more so than Daxen Hall, who rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 8.6 yards per carry. Hall was no stranger to the big play, taking off on a dash that went for 56 yards. Another player making a difference was Gunner Fagrell, who threw for 258 yards and four touchdowns while completing 71.4% of his passes.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Higley's defense and their three sacks. In fact, those sacks all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Boston Tilton.
Several Tigers players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Donovan Delong, who rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown, and also threw for 203 yards and a touchdown. Jalen Dupree was another key contributor, gaining 114 total yards and a touchdown.
The win (which was Higley's fourth in a row) raised their record to 10-2. It's not like the team was facing easy opposition over that stretch either, as it included 9-2 Desert Mountain and 8-3 Ironwood Ridge (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 65.7% over those games). As for Millennium, their loss dropped their record down to 7-5.
Higley's homestand continues as they prepare to take on Apollo at 7:00 p.m. on November 24th. One thing working in Apollo's favor is that they have now posted big point totals in their last 11 games. Millennium does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
