Deago Stubbs, Arbor View finish regular season undefeated

For the third time in his 11-year tenure as Arbor View’s football coach, Dan Barnson has led the Aggies to an undefeated regular season.

Deago Stubbs rushed for 44 yards on six carries, including two touchdowns for the Aggies, who outmuscled Cimarron-Memorial on Thursday night en route to a 35-0 road win.

Arbor View outgained the Spartans, 356-66.

The Aggies (9-0, 7-0 Class 4A Northwest League) limited Cimarron to 34 yards in the first half, and 32 in the second — all on the ground.

“It’s a team effort,” said Barnson, whose career record improved to 91-30. “It’s the coaches, it’s the kids buying. We rep it, we teach it, watch a lot of film and then go do (our) job.”

Arbor View wasted no time doing its job on Greg Spencer Field, scoring three touchdowns the first six minutes of the game.

The Aggies took the game-opening drive 60 yards — on five plays — in 1 minute, 25 seconds. Stubbs pummeled through the Spartans’ defensive line for a 2-yard-score at the 10:35 mark.

Two plays later, Niles Scafati picked off Cimarron quarterback Mason Romero and raced 31 yards for a touchdown.

“I caught it and I wasn’t going down — I was getting in the end zone,” Scafati said. “The goal was to be dominant and just do what we do. We wanted to keep getting the ball back for our offense to put up points.”

The Aggies did just that on the Spartans’ next possession, forcing a three-and-out. Quarterback Logan Bollinger hooked up with Greg Welchman five plays later for a 10-yard TD, stretching Arbor View’s lead to 21-0 with 6:22 left in the first quarter.

Kyle Graham, who finished with 61 yards rushing on three carries, tacked on another score when he burst through the line, found a seam to his right and raced untouched for a 35-yard touchdown early in the second quarter.

The only person who seemed to generate any kind of offense for Cimarron was running back Hakeem Shabazz, who finished with 56 of the Spartans’ 66 yards on 21 carries.

Led by Zach Elefante’s and Isaiah Herron’s pressure, Romero was under duress throughout and finished 0-for-11 passing on the night.

“We just have to act like a regular team, as if this was any other week,” Elefante said. “We have to stay focused on each team, each week, to get better prepared for our goals. We wanted to finish undefeated, and now it’s our road to state — that’s our goal.”

After the Aggies recovered a fumble on the first play of the second half, Stubbs finished the scoring on Arbor View’s first play of the third quarter with a thunderous 12-yard run.

The Spartans (3-6, 1-6) didn’t get past their own 45 the rest of the game.

“It’s probably one of those things I’ll look at in December, because we’re locked and loaded,” Barnson said of finishing the regular season undefeated. “I mean 9 o’clock tomorrow morning we’re in the weight room again. We gotta get going. You don’t celebrate in this game very often, because you gotta get right back up.”

Arbor View hosts Spring Valley in the opening round of the playoffs next Friday at 7 p.m.