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The Thunderbolts stood on the same sideline at Mountain America Stadium a year ago, wearing the same white uniforms, playing with the same grit and determination.

They’d faced adversity earlier this year, suffering back-to-back losses to fall to 2-2. So falling behind by a touchdown against Phoenix Arcadia in the 4A state championship game Friday afternoon was no big deal.

It wouldn’t stop Mica Mountain from winning back-to-back titles.

The seventh-seeded Thunderbolts did it emphatically, stomping No. 1 seed Arcadia 42-17 to become the first Tucson-area football program to win consecutive state championships since Canyon del Oro in 1976 and '77.

Mica Mountain scored the exact same number of points as last year’s team in the state-title game. Although 31 seniors departed from that squad, many members of the 2024 team returned.

But this team had its own identity and experienced its own journey. It wasn’t always a smooth ride.

“I feel like it was more special than last year because it was harder,� said senior defensive end Sergio Raygada, who turned the game in Mica Mountain’s favor with a pick-six late in the first quarter.

“Last year we went 14-0. Nobody believed that we could do it (again), and we just did it. We proved everybody wrong.�

Arcadia was undefeated entering Friday and had rolled through the playoffs with relatively little drama. Yet it was Mica Mountain’s sideline that began celebrating with a little over two minutes to play.

Coaches and players hugged. Supporters in the stands roared. As the clock ticked toward triple zeroes, several Thunderbolts started pointing at their ring fingers. The entire team spilled onto the field, spraying water into the air and onto one another.

The players toted the gold title trophy, carried faux newspaper covers that proclaimed them state champs and posed for a team photo.

In the front row, right in the center, sat head coach Jay Campos, who finally won a state championship in his fifth try. Raygada, named the game’s defensive MVP, sat to his left. Senior receiver Evan Wheeler, the game’s offensive and overall MVP, sat to his right.

Wheeler scored Mica Mountain’s first touchdown on a 29-yard pass from quarterback Jaidyn Crist. Wheeler scored the put-away TD on a 96-yard bomb from Crist. Wheeler finished with four catches for 194 yards and three touchdowns.

Even when they were 2-2, he and his teammates never stopped believing.

“We knew what kind of team we were,� Wheeler said. “It was just a little bit of adversity. I think that just better prepared us for this. We were ready to go. I think losing those games, we knew what we had to do to win. We came out and we did it.�

Wheeler’s route

Unlike most of his teammates, Wheeler wasn’t part of the Mica Mountain football program in its infancy. He began his high school career at CDO before transferring.

A high-level baseball player, Wheeler joined the football team this year. But he had to earn a spot. Campos had encountered plenty of athletes who said they wanted to play football but didn’t follow through.

“He told me last year that he wanted to play football,� Campos said. “I'm like, ‘Yeah, I hear that all the time. We'll see. Come to spring ball, and I'll let you know if you should keep playing baseball full time or if you might have a shot to help us.’

“After a week, I’m like, ‘You're staying with football for this season. You can play baseball (next) spring.’�

One of three players on the football roster listed simply as “athletes,� the 5-foot-8, 175-pound Wheeler made one big play after another.

Wheeler’s 29-yard touchdown reception with 2:08 left in the first quarter was snagged over two Arcadia defenders just inside the left pylon. Then came a 63-yard catch-and-run up the right sideline that bumped the Thunderbolts’ lead to 21-10 with 5:46 left in the second.

Finally, the longest and best of them all.

Mica Mountain faced third-and-12 from its 6-yard line late in the third quarter. The score was 28-17. A failed conversion likely would set up Arcadia near midfield.

Crist rolled to his left in the north end zone. He heaved the ball downfield. Wheeler grabbed it in stride on the ASU logo, broke away from a Titans defender and raced into the other end zone.

“It was a boot pass,� Wheeler said. “I had a post. I got over my corner. ‘JC’ gave me a perfect ball, and I just had to run it in. That's really it.�

“I rolled out,� Crist said. “I see the safety bite. It was one-on-one with Wheeler, and they haven't been able to stop him all night. So I threw it up to my guy, and he made a play.�

It wasn’t Mica Mountain’s only 90-plus-yard touchdown.

Late in the second quarter, another all-around athlete, Riley Carson, returned a kickoff 99 yards for a score. No one thought that would be the outcome when the knuckling kick bounded past him.

Carson retreated inside the Thunderbolts’ 5 to pick up the ball. He bobbled it twice. He somehow made his way to the right sideline. Carson then cut back toward the middle of the field. That’s when the red sea parted. No scarlet jerseys in sight.

“We had blocks everywhere,� said Carson, who plays on all three units and handles kicks and punts, among other duties. “To be honest, I couldn't have done it without (them).

“There was a kid on my tail when I bent the corner to the sideline, and we picked up a block from right behind me. Then I saw the cutback lane. I hit that other 40, and I was kind of gassed. But we had players running down the field right by my side.�

Mica Mountain’s offense and special teams did their parts. The defense got in on the action, too.

‘Lights-out’ defense

Raygada’s pick-six was stunning in multiple ways.

It came on the first play from scrimmage after Wheeler’s first touchdown. Arcadia quarterback Zach Smith took a short drop and fired the ball toward the left sideline. Raygada, who’s listed at 6-6, leaped and batted the ball with his right hand. It remained airborne. Raygada snagged it and raced 18 yards for a TD.

Two scores, seven seconds apart. Just like that, a 7-0 deficit became a 14-7 lead.

“That was the momentum switch that we needed,� Carson said. “We had never seen a team smack us in the mouth like they did on that first drive. Sergio putting his hands up and coming down with that ball, you couldn't ask for a better football play.�

After Wheeler’s second touchdown, Arcadia responded with a TD to make it 21-17 with 2:49 left in the first half. The Titans, who were averaging 37.5 points per game, wouldn’t score again.

The Mica Mountain defense forced and recovered two fumbles. It twice stopped Arcadia in the red zone. The Thunderbolts stymied the Titans twice on fourth down. (One of those was a spike on fourth-and-1 near the end of the half — a reminder that these are still kids.)

“Our defense this whole year has been nothing short of exceptional,� Campos said. “They went against a great offensive team tonight, and they were able to keep it under control.

“What you saw tonight was consistent with the way we've been all year. They’ve just been lights-out.�

That last touchdown by Arcadia came with Mica Mountain senior linebacker Broden Schmidt on the sideline. The Thunderbolts’ leading tackler injured his right knee earlier in the possession.

Schmidt had an ice pack on his knee as the first half wound down. He returned for the second half and finished with eight tackles. Senior defensive back Blake Beltz had a team-high 11.

“One of the toughest kids I've ever met in my life,� Campos said of Schmidt. “Last year he was playing with a broken hand. He found a cast, was able to tape it up and still play for the whole season.

“This year, he's been playing with a banged-up knee the whole year. But he's found a way to get through it.

“Whatever college is lucky enough to get him, they’re gonna get one heck of football player.�

Campos is still one heck of a coach after a hiatus of nearly a decade. Players talked about him listening to them, being open to ideas and adjusting to their needs over the course of the season.

Campos took over the football team after Pat Nugent retired, but wasn’t far removed from the game. Campos served as an assistant principal at Mica Mountain, helping lay the foundation for the Thunderbolts’ athletic program.

The school opened in 2020. It just finished its fifth varsity football season. It already has two state championships.

“We built a foundation in our sporting programs where this is not the exception; this is the expectation,� Campos said. “We're gonna compete for championships in every sport, and that's something that we've been from Day One."

There’s no debate that Mica Mountain belongs. There’s no chance the Thunderbolts will feel satisfied with back-to-back titles.

“I told the kids tonight. ‘We're gonna take a week to enjoy this,’� Campos said.

And then?

“It's time to try to go for that three-peat.�