No. 1 Basha rolls over Brophy in 6A high school football opener

Basha opened it's football season on Thursday, Aug. 28, making a statement that it's not only the best team in Arizona, but maybe one of the top 25 in the nation.

Josh Gaines scored on runs of 10 and 58 yards in a 42-6 win over Brophy Prep in a game played at Central High, which serves at Brophy's home field.

"They didn't scrimmage, so we didn't have anything to go by," Gaines said. "I just followed my blockers. They really set it up."

Basha, ranked No. 1 in The Republic's preseason Super 25, has two of the best backs in the state in Gaines and Noah Roberts, along with two of the best tackles with 5-star juniors Jake Hildebrand and Dajohn Yarborough.

Roberts also had a rushing touchdown and quarterback Brodie Vehrs ran for a score as Basha built a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Cornerback Trey Knox, using his track speed, blocked a punt that gave Basha the ball at Brophy's 11. That set up Roberts' TD run.

In the second half, Knox blocked another punt that linebacker Caleb Jordan returned 43 yards for a TD.

"Really, this is the first year they have me doing that because of what I did during track season. They know I can get to the ball,'' Knox said.

Basha intercepted Brophy quarterback Case Vanden Bosch twice, both leading to scores.

"Even though we didn't see them in the scrimmage, we knew they had a lot of  new guys who would be starting up front on both sides of the ball," Basha coach Chris McDonald said. "We have a lot of experienced guys coming back on both sides of the ball. Really, our game plan all week was try to overwhelm them up front. I thought our guys did a good job with that. Give them a healthy dose of Josh and Noah."

Brophy finally scored with eight minutes left in the game on a Vanden Bosch 16 yard pass to Devon Fitzgerald.

Brophy started two freshmen on the offensive line and another in the secondary.

"We gave them the ball twice. Missed a PAT, missed a field goal. Those are things you can't do against a good football team," Brophy coach Jason Jewell said. "We played poorly against a good football team."

Basha will find out a lot more about itself on a national scale next week then when they host one of the best teams in the country in California's Orange Lutheran. Brophy travels to Regis Jesuit in Colorado.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: No. 1 Basha rolls over Brophy in 6A high school football opener