Jimmy Irizarry studied the legendary Fab Four’s music and their history so he could inhabit his role as John Lennon in “Rain — A Tribute to the Beatles.” “We try to perform, look and sound like them and that’s a huge feat for us,” he said. “But we’re doing our best to recreate and recapture the magic,” Irizarry said.

Tom Purcell

It may be another gray and soggy weekend as forecasters are predicting a 40 percent chance of rain Saturday night.

MIAMI — The Diamondbacks went more than two years without a road rainout. Now they have had two in as many days.

Many times in football, nasty weather is the great equalizer. Take two teams that do not match up on paper and put them on a rain-soaked mud pit of a field, and more often than not they will produce a close game. Such was not the case in the 5A Division II semifinal between Peoria Centennial and Tucson Sunnyside. Centennial (12-1) rolled all over Sunnyside (10-3), shrugging off the constant rain en route to a 41-6 victory and a trip to the state championship against Avondale Westview. Click here for a photo gallery The stars of the game were undoubtedly the Hughes boys, Jeff and Anthony. Jeff ran for 65 yards and two touchdowns. Anthony, meanwhile, put up big plays seemingly at will, finishing with 155 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries. Centennial Head Coach Dick Taylor said he was impressed with the Hughes', especially given the conditions. "If someone was not familiar with our team, they'd probably look at the box score and say, ?dang, that Hughes kid is good,'" Taylor said. "But yeah, they just made some tremendous plays out there." Overall, the game was dominated by Centennial. The Coyotes put up 21 points at the half and another 13 in the third quarter to make the score 34-0 before Sunnyside even got on the board, with a touchdown halfway through the fourth quarter. Taylor said he attributes the lopsided score in part to his team's ability to deal with the slop on the field. "I told them that I grew up in Ohio and that I coached and played in probably 100 games that looked just like this one tonight," Taylor said. "I told them they need to embrace the muck, get right down in there and just own it. I think our guys did a little better job of it than theirs." With the win, Centennial will now move on to face Westview in the state championship. Taylor said his team will do little extra in preparing for the game. "I don't think I have to say anything to them," Taylor said. "They know how to prepare, they know what they need to do. We'll just get our reps in and make sure we're ready."

The weather forecast is calling for the first significant rain since the monsoon’s end.