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Foothill’s Tyler Morris reaches for a pass under coverage from Basic defensive back Joshua Johnson during their Sunrise region semifinal game Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, at Foothill. Foothill won, 35-28, to advance to the regional quarterfinal.
Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 | 12:15 a.m.
High school football highlights
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KSNV coverage of four high school games, Nov. 10, 2011.
Prep Sports Now
Familiar arguments emerge as playoffs move along
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Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer disagree on the Liberty vs. Las Vegas matchup for the same reasons as last year. They come to a consensus on the rest of the games, but also break down the matchups.
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There is no doubt Kyle Keplinger is the Foothill High football team’s top offensive threat.
The senior wide receiver entered Thursday’s Sunrise Regional semifinal game against visiting Basic with 21 touchdowns, easily having his way with the opposition every week.
So, what happens when Keplinger is held in check? Well, he still has an impact on the game.
Despite having only three catches for 28 yards, Keplinger drew double coverage all night in creating mismatches for his teammates in the Falcons’ 35-28 victory.
Quarterback Drew Doxtator passed for three touchdowns, including a pair of scoring strikes to Tyler Morris in the third quarter, as the Falcons opened a 21-point advantage with 19 unanswered points.
“I was definitely a distraction for them,” Keplinger said. “We were able to run our stuff away from where I was and that was perfectly fine with me as long as we get the win.”
For the night, Doxtator completed 16 of 26 passes for 171 yards, and also scored on a 6-yard quarterback keeper. Just a sophomore, Doxtator has played like a seasoned veteran all year — especially when airing it out to Keplinger.
He got other receivers involved Thursday.
Doxtator’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Jake Winters with 47 seconds to play before halftime gave Foothill a 22-14 lead at the break. He found Morris for touchdowns of 18 and 45 yards in the third quarter to essentially seal the game.
“This team has a lot of playmakers and he isn’t afraid to use them,” Keplinger said.
Basic scored the game’s final 14 points to make things interesting, using a 66-yard touchdown run from Antrae Johnson and an 82-yard touchdown pass from Eddie Vega to DeVonte Boyd to the trim the deficit.
But Foothill’s defense wouldn’t be denied. The defense forced three turnovers, including Joe Wytheblocking a punt and Michael Gamboa returning it 39 yards for a touchdown in the first half for a 10-0 Foothill lead.
“It makes a big difference playing from on top. We can do what we want more a little bit defensively and offensively,” Foothill coach Marty Redmond said. “I thought our kids executed real well when they had to. They played tough.
“(Basic) has a lot of good athletes over there. (There are) a lot of big playmakers over there. For the most part, I felt like we held them most of the game.”
Foothill advances to next week’s Sunrise championship game against Liberty, which it lost to 49-41 earlier in the season.
Foothill, which opened in 1999, will be playing for its first regional title. It’s a school with a rich football tradition — a legacy Keplinger and Co. hopes includes a banner to hang in the gymnasium
“Our team definitely deserves this opportunity,” Keplinger said. “We knew everyone would underestimate us after losing the guys we had last year. We had some great players. But we didn’t want to be like last year’s team. We wanted to be better and we are proving it.”
Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ra
What a game. Basic, great year. Boyd u r a stud. But Foothill, congratulations! Next week should be another shootout between u guys and a red hot Liberty team. After watching AV, then Palo and Cent. Tonight on TV I have come to realize the NW is very overrated. These teams can't cover a pass to save their life. I guess it's because they don't know how to pass in their league except for Faith and they don't count because they have any lineman or RBs.
Yes, Liberty lost the first game of the yr to AV but Liberty is way better now. This Liberty team now is becoming dominant on offense. Foothill is also becoming dominant on offense. Their QB is having an awesome yr w 34 tds 2500 yds along w the Keplinger kid.
I would take either Liberty or Foothill over any overrated NW team. Next week is going to be a great shootout between Liberty and Foothill. Good luck to both.
Winner will play BG. BG will blow Palo out. Question is will Sanchez leave starters in and score w seconds to go even though he's 4 touchdowns ahead with like he did to AV kids. CLASSLESS Sanchez, absolutely CLASSLESS. The AV kids didn't deserve what you did to them. Even people in BG stands were embarrassed by you actions. Then you let your big coaches go out first while you hid behind them when time to shake hands.
Ray, you do a great job. I hope you call Sanchez out. The kids from AV deserve better. A coach should be more respectful of kids. And I hope this comment isn't removed to cover for him.
Went to last nights game (my third BG game).See the whining about BG scoring late. Can't whine. AV went "onside kickoff" to give BG short field. Then BG runs #2 tailback Starks (Powell on sideline) up the middle 4 times and ends up in end zone. No passes, no timeouts, no hurry up. Just 4 "vanilla" runs up the gut. If you don't want BG to score - AV has chance to kick deep (BG doesn't score), AV has opportubnity to tackle (BG doesn't score). Quite your whining, celebrate your 20 points. More than any other in state team. Congrats to AV with great effort against long odds. They will be a factor next year.
Not true gray ghost, they ran first to plays w toss sweep. Seven total plays. The entire starting o line, QB, and receivers. They ran last play at 20 seconds, instead of taking a knee. There's not a decent coach in the country at any level that doesn't take a knee in that situation.
What I haven't heard you or anyone else say is what about your backups? Are they meaningless over there. Are they thought of so little that they can't play the last 2:33 of the game with a 29 pt lead. What is your answer to them and their families?
Every player on a team is critical to the team's success. BG, Palo, Liberty or any successful program at any level is pushed in practice by the non-starters. There is greater pride in prepping the #1 O or #1 D to be sucessful in the game than a token play to get your uni dirty in a blowout. (OK, no dirty unis on artifical turf). I didn't see any disgruntled players or parents on BG sideline last night. They all understand the roles and the mission of an elite program -whether prep or college. The days of "make everybody feel good" are left at the Pop Warner level. In the playoffs one team wins and moves on, one team loses and goes home -just like life.
Really? A "Gorman" debate on a Basic-Foothill article? Take it somewhere else!
Great job Foothill and good luck next week!
amen to that coachfun... Lets leave this for Basic and Foothill.
I got the chance to watch Basic three times this season. I can honestly say that the do or die Del Sol game and Canyon Springs game were a lot of fun to watch. No i wasn't watching two powerhouse programs loaded with D1 talent whilst being broadcast on ESPN 8 but it was solid local high school football that was a lot of fun to watch.
The Del Sol game was a nail bitter and great effort on both sides, the Canyon game was fun to see kids at Basic have success and score that win they deserved it and while rankings all year and most predictions had them losing, we in the know, knew Basic would win easy. Hats off to Basic, that QB Vega may not ever play a down in college but he was fun to watch on the field.
Congrats to Foothill, i didn't get a chance to watch them this year but i'll make sure i do next year and see Doxtator in person. Unless they beat Liberty then i'll see you guys in two weeks