Jayson Petty accounted for four touchdowns in the first half as Sabino defeated Tanque Verde 50-7 on Friday.

The match-up between two neighbors with each team’s home field less than three miles apart was dominated by long pass plays for Sabino and turnovers for Tanque Verde.

After a quiet first few drives, a pass to Petty would start the scoring for the Sabercats.

The floodgates opened for Sabino with touchdowns from three different players, including three more from Petty that put Sabino up 43-0 at half.

“We just got worn out,” said Tanque Verde coach,Jeremiah Johnson. “We only have 14 juniors and seniors. Our JV kids won last night 28-0 and had to turn around today to be backups,” he continued.

Petty was the star of the first half, accounting for 24 of the Sabercats' 43 points including a fumble recovery for touchdown in the first play of the second quarter.

While Petty was the big scoring factor in the game, he gave all the credit to the team.

“I think it was just a team effort with everyone blocking and everyone just doing their job,” said Petty. “If the linemen didn’t block the quarterback didn’t have time to throw me a good ball.”

Petty only had 29 yards receiving but they came with big results, and he ended the night with four touchdowns and was a major contributor on both sides of the ball.

“Jayson Petty is a stud. If there is a better guy on defense in 3A I would like to see him. But today he had an offensive kind of welcome to the party,” said Sabino head coach Ryan McBrayer.

On the defensive side, Sabino kept Tanque Verde locked down, holding the Hawks to under 100 yards of offense overall in the first half and forcing two fumbles that were recovered by Sabino.

The Hawks suffered two big injuries, losing their two biggest offensive producers, Chase Birch and Kahlo Valenzuela.

Kahlo will be OK, only sustaining a sprained ankle, said Johnson, but the Hawks were left without their main contributors for the rest of the game.

The Hawks found a little life deep in the second half when a pass from the Sabercats was intercepted by Tschawn Kasey, and returned to the end zone to get the Hawks on the board.

Kasey wasn’t finished, intercepting another Sabercats pass deep into the fourth quarter. The Hawks were unable to capitalize on the turnover, as time ran out on the clock to end the game.

“That’s all we can do is try to keep going,” said Johnson. “It’s hard when you have a team of sophomores and freshman and then you have 14 upperclassmen competing against these schools that have 90 kids out, it’s going to be tough. We have taught them how to not quit,” he continued.

Sabino is now 5-2 and looking forward to a tough match up against Pusch Ridge Christian Academy, and is looking to make a run in the playoffs.

“We just have to run our offense. We are hopefully gearing up for a playoff run, but we just have to get down to the little things, build some depth,” said McBrayer. “We just need to get our guys ready. We just have to make sure each guy is prepared to go both ways once we need their number called,” he continued.

The Hawks are now 2-5 on the season but will continue to grow and learn.

“We just need to learn and build from this experience,” said senior captain Peter Olberding. “There is no need to keep for us to have our heads down after any game. We’ll practice, improve and go onto next Friday with increased intensity,” he continued.

Tanque Verde is now looking to next Friday when they travel to Safford to take on the Bulldogs.