THATCHER — A powerful running game and some timely defense were the recipe for the Thatcher Eagles to move to 4-0 with a 45-28 win over Sabino on Friday night.
The Eagles took the opening possession and went to work on controlling the clock with their ground game, chewing up nearly six minutes of the first quarter before Josh Mangum punched in a 21 yard run to give the Eagles a 7-0. They would never trail after that.
Thatcher added two more rushing touchdowns in the first half and a 67 yard passing touchdown from Wyatt Larson to Slade Shupe to take a commanding 27-7 halftime lead.
Sabino made an adjustment at halftime and took only 58 seconds to score on the opening drive of the 3rd quarter on a 30 yard run by Sophomore QB Cameron Hackworth to cut the lead to 27-14.
Thatcher answered back 3 minutes later with a Brandon Napier 25 yard scamper to extend their lead back up to 33-14. Sabino wouldn’t fold though and Hackworth found his receiver Isiah Aguirre in the corner of the endzone for a 12 yard strike with 3:23 to play in the third to make the score 33-21 Eagles.
Thatcher kept pouring on the offense in the 4th quarter with a 43 yard screen pass to Ayden Bingham and a 10 yard run by Cody Jones to up the Eagles lead to 45-21. The Sabercats added another Hackwork rushing touchdown with 4:21 remaining to cap the scoring. The Eagles held on to the ball for the rest of the game to seal their biggest win of the season.
“We were excited to face Sabino for the first time in school history and wanted to make sure we represented our town well. We ran the ball effectively and came away with a huge win,” said Eagle Head Coach Dan Jones.
The win keeps Thatcher tied for the 3A South Conference lead with Pusch Ridge and Safford, all at 4-0.
The Eagles ran for 449 yards on the night. Lead by Mangum with 121 yards, Jones finished with 103, Bingham had 85 and Napier 83. Larson finished the night with 116 passing yards and the one TD strike to Shupe.
Hackworth finished the night with 231 yards passing with 2 touchdowns. He also added 2 rushing scores to lead Sabino in both categories.
Thatcher (4-0) will host Douglas (1-1) for homecoming next week at Eastern Arizona College. The Bulldogs fell to Safford 42-0 on Friday night.
Sabino (2-2) will host Bourgade Catholic (2-2) on Friday.
