Isla Collins did everything but kick the ball to help No. 4 Salpointe beat No. 13 Deer Valley 42-14 Wednesday night to open up the 4A playoffs. Collins collected 220 yards passing on a perfect 17 for 17 with five touchdowns, she caught two passes for 25 yards and she ran five times for 47 yards, including a 28-yard dash to the end zone. Collins, a freshman member of Team USA, will need to come up big again with No. 5 Flagstaff visiting on Saturday in the quarterfinal round. Flagstaff beat No. 12 Lee Williams 24-14 to advance.

Deer Valley finished with an impressive 10-5 record only two years removed from going 0-12. Junior QB Allison Morris collected 211 yards passing with two touchdowns for the Skyhawks with 82 yards of that coming on a TD pass to junior Olivia Martin to cut the Salpointe lead down to 42-7 with 10:52 left in the game. Martin ended the night with 113 yards receiving on six catches and freshman Bella Jones had 47 yards receiving including a short catch to cut the Lancer lead down to 42-14 with 3:33 left.

The Skyhawks completed an onside conversion after the catch from Martin to set up the second TD to Jones. On an onside conversion, a team that is losing can elect to put the ball at their own 25 for a 4-15 situation and Morris hit senior Deja Ayers for 23 yards to keep the ball. The Skyhawks were successful on another onside conversion after the Jones score with the Lancers committing two penalties to advance the ball to the 45 but time expired five plays later.

Collins had TD passes to Kenna Johnson (6-71), Lilly Mann (2-26), Aliyah Adger (3-29), Tati Castro (15) and Andie Tkalcevic (22). Mann also saw time at the QB position and she finished with 66 yards passing.

This is the inaugural season for the Lancers and the team is now 13-1 with the loss coming to 6A power Marana.

ISLA COLLINS

THE PLAYS