Saguaro Rolls Past Red Mountain for the 2023 6A Crown
Arizona — December 2023
Saguaro closed out the 2023 season in dominant fashion, defeating Red Mountain 40-20 to claim the AIA 6A state football championship. The win came on the same December championship weekend that saw Liberty capture its first Open Division title, giving the Valley two new state champions within hours of each other.
Saguaro's 20-point margin of victory reflected a program that controlled the game from start to finish, piling up points against a Red Mountain team that had fought its way to the title game but couldn't match Saguaro's pace once the Sabercats got rolling. The result extended Saguaro's standing as one of the state's most consistently competitive programs, adding another championship banner to a program with a long track record of contending deep into the postseason.
For Red Mountain, the appearance in the 6A title game capped a strong season even in defeat, a reminder that just reaching the last weekend of the Arizona high school football season is an accomplishment in a conference as deep as 6A.
The 2023 title reaffirmed Saguaro's place among the state's top programs heading into a stretch of seasons that would see the 6A crown change hands nearly every year, from Saguaro to Centennial to Casteel — a sign of just how wide open the top of Arizona's largest classification has become.