Dominique Payne
All heart was brought out this past Friday in Marana as Marana High School took on Ironwood Ridge for the first Friday Night Lights of the season. However, taking away a 42-55 loss at home for Marana. The Marana Tigers started 7:00 pm kickoff ready as ever on defense. Although Marana struggled filling in the end zone to avoid a safety, the Nighthawks would get close, but not close enough to touchdown. The Tigers followed up on offense scoring the first touchdown of the night by Zack Roberts (Marana). The Tigers would not give the Nighthawks a break the whole first quarter. Ironwood, fighting against Marana’s strong defense and immediate tackles by number 9, T.J Cephers, Ironwood struggled to get a complete pass to number 19 wide receiver, Andrew Cook, to get a first down. A couple timeout’s later and released tension, the Nighthawks catch a break with their first touchdown with just under five minutes left on the clock in the second quarter with a score now of 14-7 initiating the first comeback for Ironwood. At this point in the game you can see the Tiger defense beginning to underestimate the fight in the Nighthawks. Ironwood now had a massive adrenaline boost leading to two interceptions, both by number 2 Noah Pallanes that really riled up the Tigers forcing even harder tackles by the Marana defense.
Going into the half after a sloppy second quarter Marana would have to come together to strategize ways to maintain their lead over Ironwood. As a result they came back out more fired up than they had started for the second half with a recovery at the 40yd line. Followed by a complete pass to number 2, Teon Simmons, for the first touchdown of the second half allowing the Tigers to have a short-lived cushion. The Nighthawks don’t feel like giving up any time soon and shortly after the last touchdown, they follow up with a long run by number 22, Nick Brahler to score and redeem themselves once again. By this time, the score is now at 21-20 with a single point lead for Marana.
The game was head to head the whole night, and Simmons (Marana) definitely shined the whole night, not once letting up. With his lightning speed, he ran a 55 yard pass straight to the end zone to, once again, allow a 7 point lead for the Tigers. And then again later with just 3:36 minutes left on the clock in the third quarter by Marana QB Bourguet. After both teams leaving too many holes on the field for opportunity, the first tie of night occurs when Ironwood catches up to balance out the score at 35-35. This initiated the turn for the Tigers when Bourguet has his own pass intercepted by number 35, Drescher, who ran all the way to the 35 yard line – big step backwards in hopes for Marana. As a result, passes are dropped and possible interceptions incomplete, however, Tigers still managed to get their first and second down, proving both teams are still relentless.
Both teams still tied at 35-35 with three minutes left of the game. Marana really needed to defend the end zone as Ironwood was inching closer and closer to the end zone from the 35 yard line, but couldn’t obtain a first down. There are now only 51 seconds on the clock and all of Marana players and fans’ nerves are kicking in at this point since it’s anyone’s game. Nighthawks exercise another time out; their first of the second half. Brahler ends up scoring again for Ironwood putting them in the lead for the first time the whole night and the crowd goes wild. Score is now 35-42, Ironwood Ridge. Tigers need to pull some strings to just find a way to score and QB Bourguet runs it himself to gain a first down at 39 yards, unfortunately followed by a play of an interception by Nighthawks, Becerra. After that, all hope went down hill as the Tigers lost opportunity to score in these last seconds. Finalizing the first loss and game of the season at Marana’s home field. Final score: 42-55, Ironwood Ridge.
