The entire season, Cactus has rallied around their motto to “close the show”.

During Friday night’s matchup against Peoria, the Cobras defense absolutely closed the show, allowing their offense to take the stage in the second half and perform the encore.

The result was a convincing 34-7 win over the Panthers in the 4A quarterfinal rematch Nov. 15 between the Peoria Unified School District rivals in Glendale.

The win allows the #2 seed Cobras (10-2) to advance to Friday’s semifinal showdown against #6 seed Gilbert Mesquite (9-3), a 27-26 come-from-behind winner over #14 Tempe Marcos Di Niza.

“We were a little slow in the beginning, but we started picking up energy. We made our adjustments and (Peoria) had nothing after that,” said Cactus sophomore defensive end Justin Holmes who tilted the game in the hosts favor with an electrifying blocked punt that led to a safety with 9:16 remaining before halftime.

With the game tied 7-7 and Peoria facing a fourth-and-9 from their own 17, Holmes streaked in from left end and got a piece of the Panthers’ punt. The ball ricocheted backwards and was ultimately covered up by Peoria (9-3) in its own end zone for a 9-7 Cactus lead.

And when Anthony Flores found paydirt from 18-yards out on a run up the middle less than two minutes later, the Cobras extended its lead to 17-7 and in the process stealing all the momentum Peoria had gained early in the game.

They would never recover.

“Everything is about momentum. We had a big score on that first drive, but that punt return killed it. And after the safety, we were never able to get it back,” said Panthers coach Will Babb.

The punt return Babb referred to came compliments of Cactus junior Antonio Pratt.

On the game’s opening drive, the Panthers marched 62 yards, on 8 plays with relative ease, capped with a Kyle Samford quarterback keeper from 5 yards out for a quick 7-0 lead.

The Cobras couldn’t match the initial Peoria intensity, stalling out on their first drive of the game.

Enter Pratt.

On fourth-and-7 for the Panthers, the speedster caught the ball inside the Cactus 40 yard line, started up the right side, and quickly reversed field, getting outside the Panthers’ defenders down the left side and into the endzone for the 7-7 tie with 1:43 left to play in the first quarter.

And much like in their 20-14 win versus Peoria in week 10 of the season, the Cobras were once again anchored by a swarming defense, led by Doodles Quinones who was all over the field all night long.

“They (Doodles and brother Nicc Quinones) are amazing. They are the catalysts for the team.” said an elated Cactus coach Joe Ortiz about the team’s dynamic duo.

Nicc factored big not only on defense but also got the big second half offensive explosion going right after intermission.

Just five plays into the second half, Nicc Quinones took a screen pass over the middle from senior Conner Cordts and raced 71-yards for a 24-7 Cactus lead.

For Cordts, it would be the first of two long scoring throws, the second going to TJ Rucker on a 42-yard nifty grab over a Peoria defender. That play enabled the Cobras to put away their long-time rivals for good.

Cordts finished the night 12-of-20 for 235 yards.

Cactus foreign exchange student Jonas Kurok kicked just his second field goal of the season in the fourth quarter, a 29-yarder, closing out the scoring for the hosts.

The win was the first time in the 40-year rivalry between the two schools that one of the teams won two games in the same season.

“I really think we are peaking at the right time. Hopefully we go out and play really well next week so we can play for a state championship in two weeks,” Ortiz added.