St. Johns

But each time the Redskins held strong.

Gatlin Schaeler ended one threat by the Lobos with an interception. The Redskins stopped the Lobos short on fourth down the other two red zone possessions and held on to prevail 8-6.

“These kids are gritty,” said St. Johns head coach Tate Burt. “These kids are just tough. They had their backs to the wall multiple times. I think we had a great game plan going into it, and these boys just didn’t give up, facing some tough circumstances.”

Ethan Platt caught a touchdown pass from Boyd Patterson and seventh-grader Shad Hendriksen ran for two points as St. Johns broke a scoreless tie in the second quarter. The Lobos answered before halftime, but a bad snap on the two-point pass play wound up resulting in a sack.

And the defenses dominated in the second half.

St. Johns capped an 8-0 season with the win in the game at St. Johns High.

It’s the first tournament for the league.

Defense led the way for St. Johns.

The Redskins went 6-0 in the regular season, then beat Blue Ridge 42-0 in the semifinals for their fifth shutout. St. Johns outscored opponents 191-20 in the regular season and 50-6 in two playoff games.

“This group has been together for about six years now,” Burt said. “So, this is the culmination of all their hard work. We’ve had mostly the same coaches, as well.”

The team opened with a 48-0 win over Blue Ridge, then beat Sanders 46-0, Snowflake 22-8, Winslow 22-0, Holbrook 40-0 and Round Valley 13-12 in overtime.

Along with Burt, the coaches include: Corey Garcia, Joe Garcia, Jon Richardson, Byron Wahl, Trey Platt, Alan Wahl, Jacob Cohen and Jay Wahl.

Burt talked about the key to the championship.

“They’ve been battle-tested all year and came up big,” Burt said. “It was a great atmosphere with a ton of fans from both sides.”

It was thrilling for the boys from a small-town like St. Johns to knock off all the other programs in the White Mountains, including a Snowflake team it doesn’t see at the varsity level since the Lobos play in the 4A Conference and St. Johns in 2A.

“St. Johns has a strong varsity football program, but because of the difference in school size, this would be the last opportunity for our eighth graders to play Snowflake,” the coach said. “Snowflake simply has a much larger pool of players to draw from, which gives them a numbers advantage.”

The St. Johns seventh graders have gone unbeaten the past two seasons. And the eighth grade team needed several of them for the eighth grade team this season.

“There’s about four seventh graders who started for eighth grade games,” Burt said.

This is his second year as the head coach. Last year the eighth graders went 7-1, with the only loss by a touchdown.

He coached at the Little League level for five years before that.