Change is going to happen.
It is the sudden ones that can be difficult to manage and overcome. The type that happens so fast it can leave one uncertain of what just happened.
Queen Creek’s upset hopes in the first round of The Open on Friday night, reserved for the state’s top eight football teams, ended in such fashion as the Bulldogs saw a halftime lead quickly dissipate in the opening minutes of the second half against Chandler on Nov. 26.
The second-seeded Wolves scored twice in three offensive plays to erase a seven-point halftime deficit to build the momentum it took to turnaround the game as the Bulldogs were knocked out of the playoffs in a 48-28 loss.
“You saw what it did to us,” Queen Creek senior running back Payton Barlow said. “We came out and made some mistakes and didn’t play like we did in the first half. They took the lead before we knew it and we never got it back.”
Queen Creek played a great first half and led 21-14 when Barlow took in a sweep on fourth and goal from the 1-yard line with 29 seconds left. The Bulldogs entered the locker room on a high and looked poised for an upset and were going to receive the second-half kickoff.
“It was pretty loud and we’re feeling good, but the coaches settled us down, let us know we had to keep playing our game,” Barlow said. “We had a chance to set the tone (to open the second half).”
Seventh-seeded Queen Creek (8-3) certainly did, but not the way the Bulldogs wanted.
They had a three-and-out and followed it up with a 3-yard punt. It gave the Wolves great field position and they scored on the second play when Blaine Hipa hit Kyion Grayes for a 23-yard score.
On the next drive senior quarterback Sebastian Tomerlin was injured on a play on the sideline that looked to be a late hit, but the officiating crew ended up throwing a flag for a personal foul on Queen Creek. It put backup quarterback Nathan Soden in a tough situation and the Bulldogs punted.
The first play of the ensuing drive was a 62-yard touchdown by Chandler’s Nason Coleman for a 28-21 lead the Wolves never relinquished.
In a matter of three offensive plays and 4 minutes and 37 seconds of game clock, the Wolves went from down a touchdown to leading by a touchdown.
Sudden change.
It can leave a team reeling.
“I am not going to make excuses,” Queen Creek coach Travis Schureman said. "We have to play better than that. You can’t have that. They played a great second half and we couldn’t answer that unfortunately, but things didn’t go our way. It’s football sometimes.”
The loss stings considering how it played out, but reality is this football team accomplished several things this year that seemed unlikely back in July.
The Bulldogs qualified for The Open for the first time in its three years of existence and they beat seven playoff teams this season with the only defeats coming against Chandler twice and Red Mountain.
“One thing about our kids is they are not afraid of anyone,” Schuerman said. “We’ll line up and play against anyone. On paper we shouldn’t even be in this game. Most weeks we suit up 45 players and (Chandler) has 200 kids. They should have rolled us. Our kids flat out go to battle and have that lunch pail approach.
“It didn’t work out for us, but that is a heck of a football team.”
While the scoreboard will reflect a lopsided score the lasting images of the season is much better than that difficult second half.
It is Barlow running hard, breaking tackles; Tomerlin maturing into a quarterback role, coming back from injury, and throwing a bomb to make it a one-score game in the fourth quarter; it’s two-way player Bryan King making two diving touchdown catches and coming off the edge to record what look to be a safety but ruled a sack on the 2-yard line.
Or it was the excitement that Ayden Suba showed at halftime, punching his fist in the air; the offensive line, led by Griffin Schuerman, winning the battle up front in the early going; it’s Porter Reynolds running hard on offensive and hitting harder on defense; it’s the scoreboard reading "Visitors 21, Wolves 14."
It wasn’t enough but Schuerman and everyone involved with the program know that strides were made, and the dividends will continue in the years to come.
“I’m proud with how our kids played and responded,” Schuerman said. “At the beginning of the year, if anyone said we were going to be in The Open and playing Chandler to a one-touchdown game late they’d say, ‘No way.’ Our kids never quit and always believed in what we are doing.
“We went to football camp and before we got on the bus, we ran 21 10s (a running drill) and they just attacked it. It was impressive to see. That’s the one thing I look back on and I knew we’d have some kids who weren’t afraid to work and get after it.”
