No. 11 Mountain Ridge beat No. 3 Marana 21-20 Thursday night in the quarterfinal round of the 6A flag football playoffs and the Mountain Lions will travel to play at No. 2 Red Mountain in the semifinal round next Wednesday for a shot at the first flag football state championship ever offered by the AIA. Red Mountain held on to beat No. 7 Xavier Prep 7-6 to set up the semifinal match on Nov. 1.

Mountain Ridge improved to 10-5 on the year after starting the season out 2-5. The eight victories in a row since late September includes a 20-18 win over No. 6 Chandler (11-2) in the first round of the state playoffs on Tuesday to set up the game at Marana on Thursday. Marana was one of two 6A teams entering the quarterfinal round undefeated but the Tigers will end their inaugural season with an impressive 13-1 record. Red Mountain is now the only undefeated team in the conference at 14-0 but being an underdog is something Mountain Ridge has embraced.

“At the beginning of the season, we were just figuring the game out and we were going up against East Valley teams that knew how to play and we just really learned a lot of lessons early in the season,” Mountain Ridge head coach Whitney Warmus explained on the turnaround. “We kind of put some pieces together and everything is kind of quick and they're getting it and the offense is looking smooth and the defense is getting it all around. They're just gelling with what we are doing and they're just going out and enjoying it.”

Leading the Mountain Lions is senior quarterback Madison Green who finished the night with 74 yards passing on only seven completions but Green took full advantage of the short fields her defense provided her at Marana. The Tigers gave up the ball on downs to start the game which left the Mountain Lions a short 30 yards to work with and Green ran the ball in from six yards out with 7:11 left in the opening quarter to put Mountain Ridge up 7-0 after the kick from Isabelle Ceja.

Marana gave the ball up on downs at their own 19 with 52 seconds left in the first quarter and Green hit Jade Fudurich from nine yards to put the Mountain Lions up 14-0 with 21 seconds left. The teams traded possessions until Marana went on a 70-yard drive to cut the lead down to 14-7 with exactly five minutes left in the half with Roxi Singer finding Malaysia Roebuck open in the end zone from one yard out.

The Tigers were back in great shape after Adrian Griffin came up with an interception with 3:40 left and Singer hit her sister Nami Singer for 26 yards before tossing a short pass to Madison Myers-Rebidas to tie the game at 14-14 with Thais Monson providing the extra point. Griffin collected another interception with 1:45 left in the half but Marana went for a 25-yard field goal with eight seconds left to take the lead but Ellie Cardiff got a finger on the kick from Amy Dear to preserve the tie at the half.

“I knew these girls can do anything if they put their mind to it,” Marana head coach Shaun Lara said on the comeback. “We're down 14 first quarter and we just came back and made it a tough game, so yeah I was proud of these girls.”

Mountain Ridge took the lead for good on another short field after Talia Nelson came up with an interception to give the Mountain Lions the ball at the Marana 25 with 8:32 left in the third quarter. Green hit Peyton Yankovich for 11 yards three plays later and then from eight yards out to put the Mountain Lions up 21-14 with 5:49 left.

Roxi Singer came up with a big pass to Griffin moments later and the Tigers cut the lead down to 21-20 after the 63-yard play with 4:19 left in the quarter. The kick was missed and the 21-20 lead held up the rest of the way but the lead was challenged down the stretch with Myers-Rebidas coming up with an interception with 6:24 left.

The Tigers converted on two fourth down plays in the time-consuming drive, including a 20-yard pass to Roebuck to overcome a fourh-and-16 situation. The drive stalled at the 27 with a dropped catch inside the ten and the Mountain Lions were able to run the clock out after getting the ball back on downs with 1:11 left in the game.

The short field kept the offensive totals at a minimum for the Mountain Lions but Singer finished with 254 yards passing on 28 completions out of 46 attempts for Marana with Roebuck pulling in 104 yards receiving and Griffin had 100. In the end, the Tigers needed one more completion here and there to extend the field but the Mountain Lions did what was necessary to advance to the semifinal round.

“Every week had a lot of close games and these last three four games have been super close,” Warmus added. “We won our region game at the very end, we won our last playoff game by two with a field goal at the end, and it's exciting. They're just feeling the pressure but they're bouncing back from it and it's been great.”

For Lara, the end of a great inaugural season and a 6A Central Region championship is just the beginning of a powerful program.

“This is more than I expected,” Lara added. “Honestly, I've been coaching boys for 12 years now and it's my first year of coaching girls flag and I loved it. Most of these girls are in other sports they're going to jump into basketball, wrestling and track so, if they're not doing that, we can start working with them early. They're all athletes. So I love multi-sport athletes. If somebody's just doing flag football, they're doing it wrong.”

On the other side of the bracket, No. 4 Hamilton beat No. 5 Desert Ridge 17-13 and No. 9 Mesa Mountain View upset No. 1 Highland 24-20 to set up a semifinal game between Hamilton (12-2) and Mesa Mountain View (11-3). Coincidently, the 6A state championship game is slated to be played at Mesa Mountain View on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m.

 

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