Brophy defense dominates in opener

Bryan Berens and Ray Polk are but distant memories now. If the Phoenix Brophy defense keeps playing like this, it won’t matter. The Broncos stifled the Las Vegas Bishop Gorman offense all night, coming a missed tackle away from a shutout in a 16-6 win in the Sollenberger Classic on Saturday at University of Phoenix Stadium.

SLIDESHOW: Brophy vs. Bishop Gorman

“Our defense really came to play tonight,” Brophy coach Scooter Molander said.

Last year, the Broncos won the state title behind the arm of quarterback Berens and the running of Polk. But it was a swarming Brophy defense led by Trent Murphy that held Bishop Gorman — a defending state champion that went 14-0 last season — to 125 total yards.

The number would have been much lower if not for a 79-yard touchdown run by Bishop Gorman quarterback John Huber late in the first quarter. He broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and then outraced Brophy defenders up the left sideline to cut a deficit to 7-6.

Murphy blocked the point-after attempt, and that was it for the Bishop Gorman offense.

Neither offense looked good in the second quarter, and Brophy took a 9-6 lead into intermission when Bishop Gorman elected to take a safety instead of attempting to punt out of its own end zone.

Fumbles by Brophy and bad punts by Bishop Gorman gave both teams opportunities in the second half, but neither team could capitalize until the Broncos capped the only sustained drive of the game with an 8-yard pass from Beau Maggi to A.J. Steimel with 54 seconds left to seal the victory.

“We won a tight game, and I’m proud of our guys,” Molander said.

Maggi and Sam Quinif split time under center, both with limited success.

Qunif was 8-for-11 for 80 yards. Maggi went 6-for-10 for 39 yards with a touchdown and interception.

“I was proud, at certain points, how both of them played,” Molander said.

Maggi threw an interception on his first pass, but settled down and seemed to get better as the game went along. He didn’t play football last season.

“We’ve just got to find ourselves,” Maggi said. “As long as we’ve got that defense with us, we’ll be fine.”

Maggi said the prospect of playing the Nevada state champions was intimidating at first, before putting it in perspective.

“We saw who they were, and we were like, 'Whoa, these guys are big,’ ” Maggi said. “But so are we. They didn’t know anything about us. We were in the same position. We may as well be the bigger dog.”

The past two winners of the Sollenberger Classic have gone on to win state titles in Arizona.