Big plays end Paradise Honors' season in Tempe

By Andrew Lwowski
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TEMPE - A balanced effort with quick strike scoring plays allowed Marcos de Niza to fend off Paradise Honors comeback bid Friday, Nov. 14 with a 27-14 home win and advance to the 4A state quarterfinals.

The #8 seed Padres' defense silenced the Paradise Honors rushing attack and nabbed four takeaways for its first playoff win since 2019 and Coach Anthony Figueroa's first with the program.

It wasn’t always pretty, though that’s something that comes with the territory of November football.

 “I think those kinds of wins are necessary,” Figueroa said. “Those kinds of moments in games where you have to learn how to win in different ways.”

The Panthers were able to pick off Padres senior quarterback Jaeden Lott in the end zone on the game’s opening drive, though Lott responded on the ensuing drive with a 13-yard touchdown to Alejandro Gomez to take a 7-0 lead.

The Padres’ defense then forced the ball loose from Paradise Honors junior quarterback Parker Schmitz to close the first quarter, and running back Christian Garcia punched in the touchdown a few plays later.

The Panthers offense, which had been rolling behind the legs of junior Chuck Van Dyke (189 rushing yards per game) all season, was quiet. #24 seed Paradise Honors Coach Josh SeKoch said Van Dyke broke his collarbone late in the team’s 31-21 upset win over #9 Peoria in round one.

Still, SeKoch said his absence wasn’t to blame for the loss.

Marcos de Niza (10-1) opened the third quarter with a 53-yard bomb from Lott to sophomore J.D. DuBose to extend the Padres lead to 20-7 after missing the point after attempt.

On the Panthers’ subsequent drive late in the third quarter, Schmitz took a hit on fourth down and did not return. Schmitz finished 3 of 12 for 47 yards and two interceptions, unofficially.

The hit also drew a penalty, and sophomore quarterback Robert Casas took over. Junior Madden Obregon punched in the Panthers first points a play later off a four-yard run.

Casas’ first completion of the night went for a 57-yard touchdown to Preston Brown midway through the fourth quarter, and Paradise Honors (6-6) had life.

“Just be dudes,” Figueroa told his players. And they were.

On fourth-and-4, Demetruis Davis took a pass out of the backfield for a 38-yard score and 27-14 lead with just more than two minutes remaining. Then DuBose snagged his second interception to seal the deal.

The Padres offense stuttered late, but Figueroa told his team to stay the course.

“If you saw the wood, it’s going to break eventually, right?” 

Dubose, often targeted by opposing offenses for his undersized stature, said it felt good standing tall under pressure and having the performance he did.

For SeKoch, he was impressed about what his program accomplished in its first season in the 4A Conference.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to be here,” he said. “Nobody expected us to win last week … They just played better than us. They were prepared to stop our run game no matter what, and we turned the ball over too much. It’s not what we didn’t do, it's what they did to us.”

SeKoch says his team, which is still 3A by its numbers, had “a little less in our tank,” but he expressed gratitude toward the senior class for their fight and resiliency.

For Figueroa and his Padres, they will travel to top-seeded Arcadia for the quarterfinals on Friday, Nov. 21.

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Andrew Lwowski
Reporter | North Valley

alwowski@iniusa.org

Andrew Lwowski graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in sports journalism. He worked for then-Wrangler News -- now Wrangler News Tempe Independent -- for a little over three years before moving to Southwest Washington for a daily news paper covering prep sports. He relocated back to the Valley writing for the Fountain Hills Times Independent in October 2025 where he is covering community news and sports.