Prep football: Sartans overwhelm Lobos, reach 4A final

St. Pius X blows by Chaparral in semifinal: Photos

Nov 22, 2025

On the Class 4A prep football landscape, everything pointed to this spot on the map for the St. Pius Sartans: An appointment on the season’s final day.

Chaparral on Saturday afternoon didn’t fare much better against St. Pius than they did when these two met a month ago, and the Sartans, the No. 2 seed, overwhelmed the third-seeded Lobos 41-0 in the state semifinals at Nusenda Community Stadium.

St. Pius (10-1) will play host to No. 1 Bloomfield (11-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Community Stadium in the 4A championship game. The Bobcats pulled away in the second half of last year’s final to beat the Sartans.

“As soon as we lost that game, coach (Curtis) Flakes was instantaneously preaching about finishing the game, and finishing out the season,” said junior receiver Cayl Cox-Liggins, who had three touchdowns on Saturday. “It’s gonna be a battle.”

This semifinal was not.

The St. Pius defense completely smothered Chaparral (8-4). In the first half, for example, the Sartans limited the Lobos to 20 yards of offense. St. Pius led 27-0 at halftime.

Hershul Olloway Jr. scored on an 18-yard run on the game’s sixth play. Near the end of the quarter, Isaiah Carpenter tossed an 18-yard TD pass to a wide open Cox-Liggins in the end zone.

Eighth-grader Cy Saenz upped the lead to 20-0 on a 4-yard run midway through the second quarter.

Carpenter’s most sensational throw of the day was a 54-yard strike to Christian Morales down the near sideline just before halftime; two plays later Olloway scored on a 1-yard run on the last play of the half.

How dominant were the Sartans? They stretched their lead to 41-0 in the third quarter, and St. Pius ran exactly ONE offensive play during those 12 minutes.

Cox-Liggins took a jet sweep 25 yards for a score, and he added a 50-yard pick-6 three minutes later for the game’s final points.

“Cayl had a phenomenal day,” Flakes said. “He was all over the place. And Cayl, that’s the one out of all the kids, he’s a generational talent. You don’t get kids like Cayl come around very often. He’s a special kid; I’m blessed that he’s in this program.”

Truly, it was the St. Pius defense that carried things against Chaparral, which lost two games to the Sartans by a combined 91-0.

The Lobos were handcuffed throughout, and didn’t even run a play in St. Pius territory until the third quarter was almost over.

“We just had a great game plan in play,” Flakes said. “And a good week of preparation. We knew a lot of things they were gonna do.”

The Sartans generated a strong pass rush, their secondary was brilliant, and the Lobos — who did win a playoff game for the second straight season — had no answers whatsoever.

“They’ve been playing lights out,” said Olloway, who had a relatively quiet day by his standards, rushing for 80 yards on 10 carries, all in the first half. “They just go out there, they work hard and they fly around.”

And another stern test awaits when Bloomfield’s high-powered offense rolls into the West Side in a week’s time.

“We’re super excited for the opportunity to play against Bloomfield,” Flakes said. “They’ve been a dominant 4A powerhouse the last few years, and we really want that spot. … We wanted to not just make it to the state championship game, we want to win a title.”