1975 Arizona State Champs

GAME SUMMARY: Amphi rallied from being down 22-8 early in the fourth quarter to pull off its first state championship victory in a game that coach Jerry Loper said exemplified the Panthers’ “character” in their 12-1 season.

Amphi sophomore defensive back Herman Gutierrez sparked the comeback with an interception that he returned 11 yards to the Maryvale 35.  Herman’s brother Art, a senior fullback, had two carries for 18 yards to put the ball on the 17.  A perfectly timed option pass from Jim Krohn to Randy Barkley resulted in a 17-yard touchdown. Krohn’s two-point conversion run cut the lead to 22-16.

Amphi’s defense forced Maryvale to turn the ball over on downs with 3:06 remaininig at the Panther 20.
The Panthers quickly got the ball to the Maryvale 7 in 10 plays. Krohn’s pass through the end zone (in an attempt to stop the clock) resulted in a passing interference call on Maryvale.

Amphi had the ball at the Maryvale 2 with a first-down-and-goal situation with 17 seconds left. That’s when Barkley went around the right side to tie the game at 22.  Herman Gutierrez made the extra-point to give Amphi the lead and victory.

Three touchdown runs by Dick Harkin in the first half, including runs of 16 and 33 yards, led Maryvale to its 22-8 halftime lead.  Amphi took an 8-7 lead late in the first quarter when Krohn completed a touchdown pass to Steve Doolittle from the Maryvale 7 on a fourth-and-5 play. Gutierrez’s halfback two-point conversion pass to Doolittle capped that scoring possession.

THEY SAID IT: “All year long, we’ve had to pull out the close ones. It seems like when they know they have to do something, the kids seem to pull together.” — Amphi coach Jerry Loper to the Arizona Daily Star.

DID YOU KNOW: First-year Ironwood Ridge coach Dale Stott was a starting lineman for the Panthers that season. … Jim Krohn, an all-state quarterback in 1975, went on to be a standout quarterback at Arizona who led the Wildcats to the 1979 Fiesta Bowl under coach Tony Mason. Krohn, bothered by a bruised throwing arm against Maryvale, completed 9 of 17 pass attempts for 133 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. He also rushed 11 times for 33 yards. His most important run, however, was the 2-point conversion early in the fourth quarter that cut the lead to 22-16. After his Arizona career concluded in 1979, Krohn went on to play in the CFL for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and USFL for the Philadelphia Stars.

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Memorable moment: Trailing Maryvale 22-8 at halftime in the championship game at Arizona Stadium, the Panthers finally got going when Randy Barkley took a pitch from quarterback Jim Krohn for a 17-yard touchdown to make it 22-16 after the two-point conversion. Defensively, Amphi dug in late — as it had all season — and stopped Maryvale on fourth-and-one deep in Panthers territory, just as it stuffed Phoenix St. Mary’s at the goal line in the final seconds of the semifinals a week earlier. With two minutes to go, Amphi drove 80 yards and capped the drive with a game-tying 2-yard touchdown trudge by Barkley with just seconds remaining. Then, kicker Herman Gutierrez nailed the extra point to secure the historic victory.