Mesa Mountain View outlasts Centennial in Open playoffs. No. 1 Hamilton up next

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Last year, Mesa Mountain View junior running back Coy Bodily watched from the sidelines as his big brother, Reese, put together an all-time season at running back, including breaking the single-game school rushing record.

Now, little brother is the one starting to make plays himself as Bodily came up big in No. 8 Mountain View’s 22-14 win over No. 9 Peoria Centennial in Round 1 of the Open Division playoffs at Jesse Parker Field on Nov. 14.

Bodily had a 24-yard touchdown run to put the Toros ahead 15-0 early in the first quarter, before picking up two key first downs to run the clock out late in the game.

“He was in our program last year, saw what Reese did,” Mountain View coach Andy Litten said. “He’s always been the guy who wants to surpass what Reese did.”

The Toros came out strong, going ahead 7-0 on a one-yard run from senior quarterback Brady Goodman. It came on Mountain View’s version of the Tush Push, the play popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles that involves a player coming from behind and pushing the quarterback in short-yardage situations.

Except the quarterback isn’t allowed to be pushed at the high school level, so all three players motioned behind the 6-foot-4 Goodman on the play and pushed the players surrounding him.

“Brady does a really good job, he’s a big kid,” Litten said. “We work on it pretty good, we do that a lot.”

After Bodily’s touchdown to make it 15-0, both teams went cold until just before halftime. 

Goodman connected with senior wide receiver Zachary Galaviz, who came down with the 14-yard touchdown catch after getting hit and flipped midair, landing on his face with the back of his cleats almost hitting his head to give Mountain View a 22-0 lead with 2:28 remaining.

After that, the Centennial offense got it going, jolted by a 60-yard run from senior running back Owen Reynoso to get the ball all the way down to the 3-yard line. The next play, sophomore quarterback Titus Hill hit sophomore wide receiver Qwyntyn Hadley for a 3-yard score to make it 22-6 with 34.8 seconds left in the first half.

The Coyotes came out of halftime and scored again on their first drive, with another 3-yard touchdown from Hill to Hadley to cut the lead to 22-14 with 9:52 left in the third quarter. 

It would be the final time each team would score in the game as both defenses tightened up.

With the Toros offense hitting a standstill late in the fourth, Litten turned to Bodily. On the last two drives, Bodily carried the ball 10 times to close it out.

“I think it was great for Coy to watch Reese last year and follow in his footsteps,” Goodman said. “He had a great game tonight. That was huge and contributed to our win.”

It’s the first-ever Open Division win for the Toros in school history, something that means a lot to the storied program.

“I’m just so proud of this school and to be part of it, add a legacy,” Litten said. “I look out, it’s Jesse Parker Field and the eight championships. Bernie Busken, Tom Joseph, to be in the same breath as those guys, it’s really humbling.”

Next up in the quarterfinals is a matchup with No. 1 Chandler Hamilton and its record-breaking offense on Nov. 21.

Last year, Mountain View wide receiver Talan Arnett broke the 6A state record for most touchdowns in a single season with 24. This year, Hamilton sophomore Roye Oliver III has broken it wth 27 and counting. Arnett also recently set the 6A career record with 40. But Oliver also has the chance to surpass that too soon with 38.

Hamilton (10-0), which earned a bye on Nov. 14, is ranked No. 19 in the country by MaxPreps.

“It’s really important for us to be ourselves and go in and play our game,” Litten said. “If you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best. What a great rivalry. It’s cool that Mountain View and Hamilton is back on.”

For Centennial, it’s a reset.

The Coyotes' season isn’t over with the new Open playoff format, which takes in 12 6A teams, with first-round losing teams dropping back into the 6A tournament.

Centennial now will be the No. 2 seed in the quarterfinals on Nov. 21, setting up the chance to defend its 6A state title in that conference. The Coyotes will host No. 7 Mesa, which defeated Highland in an opening-round game on Friday.

“Certainly, our goal was to get into that Open and go all the way,” Centennial coach Andrew Taylor said. “I told them we have to face reality. Reality is, we didn’t play well enough tonight, we didn’t coach well enough tonight. Reality is, we’ll be in the 6A. But if we can commit to doing things right for the next month, we can be pretty happy with how it all ends up. But we gotta move on from this one.”

Logan Stanley is a sports reporter with The Arizona Republic who primarily focuses on high school, college and Olympic sports. To suggest ideas for human-interest stories and other news, reach out to Stanley at logan.stanley@gannett.com or 707-293-7650. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @LSscribe.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: No. 8 Mountain View outlasts No. 9 Centennial, will play No.1 Hamilton

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