The Mountain Pointe football program is headed to Nevada to open the season.

The measure of success at Ahwatukee Foothills schools during the fall season seems to get higher with each passing school year.

As the saying goes, Jimmies and Joes trump X’s and O’s.

After some stunning players, plays, performances and playoffs, football season has drawn to a close for another year.

There are duds and then there is something so out of character it becomes insurmountable.

Considering the surroundings, the Mountain Pointe players held it together pretty well while everything around them probably felt like it was closing in on them.

There are duds and then there is something so out of character it becomes insurmountable.

One had a turnover that most likely caused his team the game and the other was essentially handcuffed with a bland game plan in the early portion of the season.

Rarely does Norris Vaughan sit idly by.

By the time the student body reached the turf at Karl Kiefer Stadium on the third Friday of August, the Mountain Pointe football team, celebrating as if it just won a state title, had the necessary scenario play out perfectly.

Rarely does Norris Vaughan sit idly by.

One had a turnover that most likely caused his team the game and the other was essentially handcuffed with a bland game plan in the early portion of the season.

A Division I football coach who saw Mountain Pointe and Hamilton both in person and on film breaks down Saturday afternoon's state championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium:

State championship week is new to Mountain Pointe, but not to everyone in the program.

When Norris Vaughan is excited he can’t contain himself, words flow from his mouth that maybe shouldn’t, and his smile reaches a new level.

When Norris Vaughan is excited he can’t contain himself, words flow from his mouth that maybe shouldn’t, and his smile reaches a new level.

Two quarters of bad football, the equivalent of 24 minutes of game time out of a total of about 580, marred an otherwise perfect season.