By Joanna Chadwick
Of course the focus from high school football fans has been on Maize senior quarterback Brayden Myovela.
He’s an incredible story.
An outstanding basketball player, Myovela didn’t start at quarterback until Game 5 as a junior. When Maize was 0-4. The Eagles went on a five-game winning streak before losing in regionals to Manhattan.
Myovela can do it all — he can run. He can pass. He has 1,094 rushing yards on 76 carries for a 14.4 yards-per-carry average. He has 1,361 passing yards, completing 71% of his passes. He also has 40 combined touchdowns.
“He does an amazing job and the kids believe in him,” coach Gary Guzman said. “He won’t point fingers or blame anyone. He’s a quality kid, and with the skillset he has, it’s easy to follow him.”
But there’s more to Maize, which is 10-0.
Guzman immediately points to the offensive line. Junior Nolan Hadley, a two-year starter, was the only returning starter on the line from the 2024 season. He plays with four seniors.
“It starts with those guys up front,” Guzman said. “… I always tell the offensive line in the pregame when they’re stretching and I’m shaking everyone’s hands — ‘you know it starts with you guys. Make sure you get it done. Protect the quarterback. Create the openings for the running backs.'”
Junior Demarye Smith and senior Shannon Jones share time in the backfield — both have more than 500 rushing yards.
“It’s hard when you’re competitive and don’t want to be on the sideline, but they’ve done a good job of sharing the position and coming in and giving defenses a different look,” Guzman said.
As for the defense, Guzman looks for three things — be smart, be fast, be physical.
“They’ve done all three this year,” Guzman said. “They’ve been pretty smart. We’re fast. We look for speed when we build our defensive and have some of the faster defensive linemen. The linebackers have been solid, and our secondary has been solid.
“Brody Jarvis has seven interceptions right now, three of those for touchdowns. Ty Willits, he’s a starter in basketball, and he’s very athletic and tall, so he gives us a good defender back there.”
The defense has four shutouts, giving up 148 points in the other six games, including 34 points twice.
But Guzman knows his defense will get a stop, and that offense — which has scored 532 points — will get to the end zone. The offense has scored 49 or more in eight games.
“I’ll say, ‘hey, we need some stops, so the offense can put some points on the board,'” Guzman said. “They work well together and they really support each other. When it comes to practice, there’s competition there. Neither one likes to lose to the other.”
On Friday, Maize plays host to Manhattan (8-2), which ended the Eagles’ 2024 season.
“Like we tell the team, there are no easy games left. It’s all going to be tough,” Guzman said. “There’s four really good teams on our side of the bracket, and four good teams on the other side of the bracket, as well.
“We just have to focus on the upcoming game and make sure we’re ready to go.”
