Green Valley’s defense stands tall, holds off Palo Verde — PHOTOS

Palo Verde’s football team got to Green Valley’s 1-yard line late in the third quarter. It appeared the Panthers were about to get their first points Friday night on the road.

Green Valley made sure that didn’t happen.

The Gators’ defense tackled running back Bryant Johnson twice in the backfield and then blocked a short field goal attempt on fourth down.

Green Valley’s defense stood tall in the second half to help the fourth-seeded Gators hold on for a 10-7 home win over No. 5 Palo Verde in the Class 5A Division II Southern League quarterfinals.

“Time after time, they were exhausted, but they competed their tails off,” Green Valley coach Bill Powell said of his defense. “I’m super proud of them. This time of the year, defense will win you games. They played great tonight.”

Green Valley (7-3) advances to face top-seeded Faith Lutheran at 6 p.m. next Friday in a league semifinal.

“Winning ugly is sometimes better than winning pretty, so we’ll take it,” Powell said.

The Gators held a 10-point lead to start the fourth quarter, but Palo Verde (3-8) got on the board when quarterback Dawson Perkes found an open Wayne Braxton for a 44-yard touchdown.

Green Valley’s defense didn’t break and came up with a pair of fourth-down stops on the Panthers’ final two drives. First, a Palo Verde double pass attempt came up short when a long throw from Johnson just missed the outstretched arms of a diving Colten Thresher.

After Green Valley missed a 41-yard field goal on the ensuing possession, Palo Verde got the ball back with 1:47 left. A pair of Gators penalties moved Palo Verde past the 50-yard line, and Perkes connected with Braxton to get to the 29.

But back-to-back Palo Verde false starts moved the Panthers back. On third down, Evan Williams came up with a pass breakup for the Gators, and then Perkes’ pass went through the arms of Johnson on fourth down.

“The defense, they carried the team today,” said senior running back Cris Dalina, who rushed for 46 yards and caught a 10-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to put Green Valley ahead 10-0. “They’re the main reason why we won this game. I give all my love to the defense, and we just got to keep working on offense.”

Quarterback Michael Lewis completed 11 of 28 passes for 190 yards and the touchdown throw to Dalina with 6:17 left in the third quarter on Green Valley’s first drive of the second half. Oregon State commit Trey Glasper added 87 receiving yards on four catches.

Green Valley’s defense held Palo Verde to 207 yards of offense. Most of that came on the 44-yard touchdown and a 32-yard run from Johnson in the first quarter. Esteban Martinez helped lead the Gators’ defense with four tackles for loss.

“We had multiple opportunities to put the game away in the first half, but for whatever reason we couldn’t do it,” Powell said. “I got to give a lot of credit to our defense. They did a great job. The kids played really hard.”

Green Valley returned the opening kickoff to Palo Verde’s 27-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs. The Gators turned the ball over on downs five times in the first half.

The Gators’ best drive of the first half game was midway through the second quarter when they moved the ball and got a first-and-goal after a Palo Verde pass interference. But after Lewis was sacked on third down, Green Valley settled for a 32-yard Dax Arnold field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

Faith Lutheran defeated Green Valley 35-7 in the regular season Oct. 18. The Crusaders eliminated the Gators from last year’s playoffs in a 37-0 rout in the 5A Division III Southern League title game.

“We’ll give this 24 hours, and tomorrow morning, us as coaches will be on to Faith, our kids will be thinking about Faith,” Powell said. “We get to practice again. I’m happy for our seniors. They get at least another week.”