Underdog Round Valley Stuns Benjamin Franklin for the 3A Crown
Mountain Pointe High School, Ahwatukee — November 29, 2025
Round Valley isn't supposed to be here — at least not according to the seed line. The No. 3 Elks knocked off the No. 1-seeded Benjamin Franklin Chargers 13-10 to win the 2025 AIA 3A football state championship on November 29 at Mountain Pointe High School in Ahwatukee, a fitting result for a title game that lived up to its billing as a defensive slugfest.
Neither team found much room to breathe offensively, and the final score reflected a game decided by field position, discipline, and a handful of defining plays rather than a shootout. For Round Valley, a program out of the small community of Eagar in eastern Arizona, the win capped a season that saw the Elks knock off the tournament's top seed on the sport's biggest stage.
Benjamin Franklin, out of Queen Creek, had rolled through the regular season and playoffs as the top seed in the bracket, making the three-point defeat a gut punch for a program that had positioned itself as the favorite heading into championship weekend.
The 3A title adds Round Valley to the list of Arizona programs that used a deep, physical defense to punch above their seed — a reminder that at every classification level in Arizona high school football, December belongs to whichever team is playing its best defense, not necessarily whichever team was ranked highest in November.