Desert Edge Claims Redemption with 2024 5A State Championship
Mountain America Stadium, Tempe — December 6, 2024
Desert Edge finally got over the hump. A year after falling to Higley by a single point in the 2023 5A championship game, the Scorpions closed out the 2024 season by defeating rival Cactus 28-19 on December 6, 2024, at Mountain America Stadium to claim the title that had eluded them.
The win carried extra weight given the opponent. Desert Edge and Cactus are longtime regional rivals, and the Scorpions' defense — the unit that had carried the program all season — came up with the plays needed to hold off a Cactus team looking to spoil the moment. The nine-point margin reflected a hard-fought, back-and-forth championship game between two programs that know each other well.
For a Desert Edge program that had come agonizingly close the year before, the 2024 title was described by those around the program as a redemption story — a group that had felt the sting of a one-point championship loss and used it as motivation to finish the job the following season.
The win capped a run through the 5A bracket for Desert Edge and gave the Goodyear-based program its first state championship banner, closing the book on a two-year stretch that included heartbreak and, finally, a trophy.