By Mason Byers
Staff Writer
Resilience. That's what the Higley flag football team has shown during their 2024 season.
The Knights are now 4-2 on the season after they secured a thriller win over Casteel 14-12. After facing tough losses to Prescott and Hamilton earlier in the season, Higley hopes they found their rhythm after their win on Thursday night.
The head coach of the team Charlean Bell-Taylor made sure the team was only focused on the road ahead of them.
“We told them to not focus on the last game, it’s a new day, we go and play our style of ball,” Bell-Taylor said. “We just wanted to prove that we belong in 6A.”
Playing their style of ball is exactly what they did as the game's first points came on Higlely’s second drive when junior quarterback Ava Taliaferro connected with sophomore wide receiver Cadence Murdough for a 32-yard touchdown. The Knights stayed aggressive and went for a two-point conversion which saw junior wide receiver Maci Kerns come down with a one-handed catch to give Higley an 8-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Facing Hamilton the game before, Higley put up zero points, but the offensive coordinator for the Knights, Rene Elizondo, knew it was a learning experience and it wasn’t going to affect them versus Casteel.
“We got worked by Hamilton, it was a good experience sometimes you just got to get your butt whooped in order to learn,” Elizondo said. “But I promise we are going to learn from that like we did tonight.”
Even though Higley struck first, Casteel’s defense proved to be a problem for the Knights later in the second quarter. The Colts' junior defensive back Mia Johnson was a ball-hawk as she finished the half with three interceptions. Johnson was making sure her team didn’t allow any other points with her incredible hat-trick to end into halftime.
At the beginning of the third quarter, Casteel garnered some momentum as freshman quarterback Lacie Nemchick found Audrina Wenze-Atencio for a 3-yard touchdown on their opening drive to cut the Higley lead to only two.
For the rest of the third quarter, it was back-and-forth defensively. Then in the fourth quarter, Higley added to their lead. Taliaferro had her second touchdown pass of the game, this time to Kerns for 21-yards. Kerns seems to always be in the right place at the right time for her team on crucial downs.
“When I see something and let Ava know, I know that she is going to connect with it,” Kerns said. “If we need to get the down, I’m going to get myself open and make the catch.”
The respect between the two offensive stars goes both ways as Taliaferro always knows where Kerns is going to be when they need a spark.
“Macie is one of my most reliable wide receivers,” Taliaferro said. “I think we have such a good connection, she’s always open, she’s always gonna catch the ball.”
Being up eight points with seven minutes to go in the game Higley still had to close out the game. The Colts responded quickly with a touchdown of their own as Nemchick had another touchdown pass in the game. This time it was a deep 51-yard bomb to senior wide receiver Gianni Scott to make it a two-point game once again. Casteel went for a two-point conversion to tie the game however they failed to convert.
The Colts made a huge stop on their next defensive possession forcing Higley to punt the ball right back to them. They made it to the 50-yard line, but then freshman safety for the Knights Ava Haney made the game-sealing interception to finish out a close game.
Getting this win is just the start for Higley to get to where they want to be at the end of the season, and Bell-Taylor is ready to get back after it next week.
“Every game is a new game, just build off this win,” Bell-Taylor said. “Don’t let this win be our only win, every game come ready to play.”
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