By Richard Smith
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It is easy to focus on the transfers coming in, the talented freshmen and the enthusiasm Mark and Marcus Carter have brought to Maryvale since their arrival in February 2025.

While the cameras were away, the Panthers’ players, co-coaches and staff were building a 1-9 program a practice at a time. This was not a quick fix.

A football team is never truly a finished product, but on Nov. 6 Maryvale hosted a 4A playoff game and showed the state how far it has come. The #13 seed Panthers controlled the first round game throughout, shutting out #20 ALA West-Foothills (4-7) 35-0.

“When you go back and look at the tape, and you see from game one and you see that’s the maturation, that’s what we want as coaches. I’m a process driven guy. I’m a competitor and I love the games, but I like to see the game plan, put it together and see it implemented on the field,” Marcus Carter said.

Friday night was Maryvale’s first playoff game since 2009, and its first home playoff game and playoff win since 2005.

They did it with a defense that limited the Guardians to 127 yards and kept senior running back Kenyon Rosenthal (13 carries for 64 yards) in check. Mix that with a pair of Panthers rushing for 100 yards – freshman Dionte Brandon had 115 yards on 13 carries and junior Isaac Buchanan had 22 carries for 100 yards – and a proven formula emerges.

“I’m not taking a darn thing away from Maryvale right now. We shot ourselves in the foot a lot tonight and last week. That’s sports. That’s football,” ALA-West Foothills Coach Bryan Rauzan said. “My hat’s off to them. They’re a darn good football team.”

Senior receiver Miles Woods added his usual dynamic play to the Panthers’ foundation. He took a boundary screen from freshman quarterback Marcus Escobedo 45 yards on his team’s first offensive play.

After a low snap halted that drive, Woods took another screen 13 yards for the game’s first touchdown. In the fourth quarter, he nearly added a 37-yard touchdown reception, reaching for the end zone but being marked at the 1.

Escobedo was impressive in his playoff debut, completing 18 of 24 passes for 251 yards that touchdown and one interception, plus a three-yard touchdown run for a 21-0 lead right before halftime.

“He has 25 or 26 touchdowns on the season and 10 interceptions. A lot of them, he would like to have back because if he doesn’t, he’s not going to learn,” Mark Carter said. “A shout out to his parents because, again, he went to any school and he came to Maryvale. People were shocked when he came to Maryvale. But it obviously was good for him.”

Brandon played the final three quarters, scoring on a 25-yard run in the second quarter and a four-yard run in the third.

It was a flag filled second half. A few were offsetting penalties, but the Guardians had several personal fouls.

“It’s all the stuff we preach to them about being good people and turning the other cheek, because it’s easy to retaliate. Toughness to us is being able to walk away, especially in a day and age when everything is reactionary,” Mark Carter said.

ALA-West Foothills had a younger team this season, after a senior-filled roster led the Guardians to a 4A semifinal berth last year.

Many of this year’s seniors were part of the school’s original junior high team in 2022, and were coached by Rauzan.

“This was, in our first year of existence, our eighth graders. Half of these guys were here for that,” Rauzan said. “They’ve poured themselves into this program for four or five years. I’m hoping these young guys look at that right now and understand that we’re building tradition right now. Our frosh team built their own traditions right now.”

Maryvale has 14 seniors this year. One, senior defensive end Tariq Hannah is a four-year varsity player.

A lot of people in the community kept him going throughout those first two seasons, when Maryvale was 4-16.

He said only two or three teammates from his freshman year stayed in the program to enjoy this season.

“Back to my freshman year, we went 3-7. My sophomore year we went 1-9. With the Carter brothers and looking forward, that gave me hope right there – just not to quit,” Hannah said.

The change was not instantaneous on the field. Maryvale started 1-4 in 2025.

That team went undefeated in Copper Sky Region play but were not in the 4A playoff picture at 6-4.

Maryvale’s senior class learned life lessons in perseverance and has come out the other side with accomplishments that will serve them as they graduate and move on, the Carter brothers said.

“They had to go through a lot,” Marcus Carter said. “With the whole thing that happened last year at the beginning of the year, everybody could have packed it in. We won our first game and then we got outscored 150-8 the next four games. Then we go and win the region and we’re 15 wins in our last 16 games and we haven’t lost on the road. For them to feel like a winner is going to carry them through in life.”

Excitement returned to a West Phoenix campus with a legendary football history.

“It’s a big turnaround, especially from the previous Maryvale to Maryvale now. It’s way different. They see that jersey and say, ‘Good luck today.’ Before it was negative,” Hannah said.

Hannah was hospitalized after suffering from heat stroke in the opener at Yuma Kofa and just started to get healthy late in the season.

He had his best game of the year in the playoff game that seemed like a pipe dream when he started playing for Maryvale. Hannah had a sack, four solo tackles and three tackle assists against the Guardians.

“It’s been a lot of ups and downs. You’ve got to stick it through and a lot of blessings come your way,” Hannah said. “The No. 1 key is consistency.”

Richard Smith
Senior News Editor | Glendale & West Valley Preps

rsmith@iniusa.org

Richard Smith has been with Independent Newsmedia since 2016, and worked at a Sun City-based news outfit covering the Northwest Valley for 22 consecutive years.

An NAU alum and lifelong Arizona resident, Richard began as a copy editor and page designer at Surprise Today and the Daily News-Sun, then rekindled his love of sports writing by taking the reins on West Valley Preps in 2008.

For most of the mid-2010s he was the Surprise editor and West Valley Preps reporter. Now he’s the West Valley Preps Editor and Surprise Associate Editor.

As COVID restrictions slowly lift, Richard is cautiously optimistic he will visit book stores, football fields and gyms again this fall.