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Everything that could go right, went right. Trung Canidate rushed for a school-record 288 yards. Marcus Bell made 21 tackles. The chairman of the Rose Bowl committee put his arm around Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood and talked about how many tickets — 40,000, perhaps — would be delegated to the 11-1 Wildcats for the Rose Bowl. (That’s a story for another day).

In the middle of the celebration, I asked UA coach Dick Tomey if he felt like a baseball player pitching a perfect game.

Tomey pointed to an isolated figure sitting alone in the corner of the UA’s makeshift locker room at Arizona Stadium and shook his head. “Robert fractured his kneecap,� he said. “It’s just awful.�

On the opening kickoff of the 1998 Territorial Cup, Arizona senior linebacker Robert Bonillas was crunched by two Sun Devils, breaking his kneecap. His UA football career was over. The Daily Star’s 1994 All-Southern Arizona football Player of the Year never played another down of football.

I thought about Bonillas last week when the final score of Desert View High School’s remarkable 10-0 football season popped up on my computer. Desert View 41, Flowing Wells 23. I shook my head. I cannot remember such a Cinderella story in more than 40 years of following high school football in this town.

The Jaguars haven’t had a close game. They smacked Phoenix-area teams Sunrise Mountain and Camelback. They blew out Sahuaro 45-7. Cienega 70-35 and Mountain View 54-26. The Jags routed defending state champion CDO 41-7 and climbed to No. 3 in the state’s Class 5A rankings.

Bonillas was a terrific two-way football player at Nogales High School in the early 1990s. He did everything from returning a kickoff 91 yards to beat Salpointe Catholic to making 14 tackles in a victory over Desert View (yes, the same Desert View he has coached for 14 years).

But now we can say that in Act II, as a football coach at a school never known as a football power, Bonillas can coach as well as he played.

Across the last 100 years — which includes roughly 1,350 different high school football teams in Tucson — only 19 have gone undefeated. As well as the Jaguars have played this season, one must assume they have a chance to beat the staggering odds and become the 20th Tucson team in 100 years to go undefeated when they begin the playoffs Friday, Nov. 14. Here’s the company Bonillas and his Jags are working to join:

– 1943, Tucson High: Coach Rollin Gridley was 10-0 in his 11th season as the Badgers’ head coach.

– 1944, Tucson High: Gridley’s Badgers ran their undefeated streak to 21 games.

– 1945, Tucson High: The Badgers went 11-0 in a historic three-peat.

– 1952, Tucson High: In his fifth year, coach Jason “Red� Greer won it all, going 12-0.

– 1964, Marana High: It took coach Duane Morrison seven years at Marana to be the champion, at 12-0.

– 1965, Tucson High: In year 10, coach John Mallamo followed a 3-5-1 season with a perfect 12-0 record.

– 1968, Marana High: Third-year coach Don Hawkins ran the table, 11-0.

– 1970, Tucson High: Ollie Mayfield’s fifth THS team went 12-0, winning the title game 54-16 over Phoenix Sunnyslope.

– 1973, Palo Verde: Coach Van Howe‘s 13-0 season was his last. Why? He was forced to retire because he reached the state’s mandatory retirement age of 65.

– 1975, Flowing Wells: In his fifth state title game, Larry Hart‘s 12-0 Caballeros finally won the Big One.

– 1976, CDO: Coach Bob Smith, hired six months earlier off ex-coach Art Mangels‘ staff, produced a 12-0 state champion.

– 1979, Amphi: Vern Friedli‘s fourth Panther team was probably the best of his 36 Amphi clubs, going 13-0.

– 1990, Sabino: Jeff Scurran went from 3-7 to 12-1 to 14-0 in his first three Sabercat seasons.

– 1992, Sabino: No fluke, the 14-0 Sabercats won four playoff games by an aggregate score of 131-27.

– 1993, Mountain View: Coach Wayne Jones‘ 14-0 Mountain Lions scored 63 points in the state title game.

– 2009, CDO: In coach Dustin Peace‘s first year, running back Ka’Deem Carey led a magical 14-0 run.

– 2013, Salpointe: Dennis Bene‘s 14-0 Lancers were the best of elite clubs he had that finished 13-1, 12-1 and 12-1.

– 2023, CDO: Peace not only won the state title in his first year, 2009, he did so in his final year, going 14-0.

– 2024, Mica Mountain: Pat Nugent had been a winner at Flowing Wells, CDO and Cienega before capping his career with a 14-0 beauty.

Now comes Robert Bonillas and the 10-0 Jaguars. It would be an honor to cut-and-paste this list of 19 undefeated state champions and add Desert View, 2025, to the celebration.