PHOENIX — Who would have thought this matchup was possible just three weeks ago when the 6A Playoffs began? No. 14 Centennial will take No. 4 Mountain View, with the winner taking home the 2024 6A state championship.
It was a long regular season for Centennial (6-7, 2-2 6A Northeast Valley region) coming off of their loss to archrival Liberty in the 2023 Open Division State Championship Game. It took the Coyotes five weeks to get their first win of the season (42-7 over Boulder Creek) but they were able to follow that up with another win (30-20 over Saguaro). However, they would only get one more win for the rest of the year (49-3 over Chaparral) and squeaked into the playoffs.
Since then, Centennial has been on a Cinderella run, defeating No. 3 Red Mountain, No. 11 Casteel and now, No. 2 Queen Creek (10-3, 3-1 6A East Valley region), 37-32, in the semifinals on Friday night.
For the Mountain View Toros (12-1, 5-0 6A Fiesta region), the story was quite different. Two dominant wins to start the season were followed by a 49-20 loss to defending Open Division champion Liberty. However, the Toros haven't lost since, rolling off nine straight wins — including playoffs — culminated with a 28-27 upset victory over No. 1 Brophy (10-3, 3-1 6A Central region) in the semifinals.
Centennial will be playing in the school's 13th state title game. The Coyotes have won seven state championships: 5A Division II in 2006, 2007 and 2008, Division II in 2014 and 2015 and 5A in 2017 and 2018.
Mountain View will be playing in the school's 14th state championship game and first since 2006. The Toros have won eight state titles: AAA (1978), 3A Division 1 (1983 and 1986) and 5A (1993, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002).
This will be just the third meeting between Mountain View and Centennial, according to MaxPreps, and the series is tied 1-1. Mountain View beat Centennial, 35-13, in 2005 and Centennial returned the favor, 34-21, in 2006.
The updated 6A bracket is below.
The 6A State Championship Game will be played at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Arizona State University's Mountain America Stadium in Tempe.
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