Down 12-7 to No. 10 Desert Vista with 10:52 left in the game, Roxi Singer engineered a 70-yard scoring drive to put No. 6 Marana up 14-12 and the Tigers held on the rest of the way to remain perfect at 6-0 on the year. The Thunder fell to 4-3 but the team came within one 2-point conversion, and a few yards, of stunning the Marana home crowd.

The Desert Vista defense came up big in the first quarter with an interception from Ravyn Harris to open the game and two more interceptions from Arianna Delgado to stop two scoring opportunities. The second interception from Delgado led to a short touchdown run from Ella Creech to put Desert Vista up 6-0 with 5:15 in the first half but Marana got the ball back at the 50 with just over 30 seconds remaining in the half and Singer hit Adrian Griffin for ten yards, followed by a 20-yard pass Malaysia Roebuck but an 18-yard pass to Roebuck came as time expired and Desert Vista went to the half up 6-0.

Both teams traded punts to start the third quarter but Singer started to get her timing down again and a 22-yard strike to Roebuck set the team up at the 13 and an 11-yard pass to Griffin moved the ball to the 2 where Singer ran twice to tie the game up at 6-6. Thais Monson kicked the extra point and Marana led 7-7 with 1:30 left in the third quarter.

Jackie Jimenez got the start for the Thunder in the second half and she hit Eanae Dagons in stride from 39-yards out to put Desert Vista back up 12-7 but the 2-point pass just missed and that was the margin with 10:52 left in the game.

The Tigers were almost unstoppable in the next drive with a 16-yard run from Singer, an 11-yard pass to Madison Myers-Rebidas, followed by a 6-yards pass to Myers-Rebidas and then a 5-yard pass to Myers-Rebidas. A 14-yard pass to Thais Monson put the ball at the 18 and that was followed by a 5-yard pass and then a 12 yard pass to Myers-Rebidas to put Marana at the one and Singer ran the ball in for the 13-12 lead. Monson made her second try and Marana led 14-12 with 6:46 left in the game.

Jimenez started at her own 30 and she drove the team down to Marana 30 in under two minutes but a sack from Nami Singer led to a 3rd-and-16 situation and a 29-yard pass down the field to Dagons was just a couple of yards too long and Marana got the ball back with 2:53 left.

Marana faced a 4th-and-5 at midfield but the Tigers went for it instead of punting the ball away and Roxi Singer hit her sister Nami Singer for 11 yards to put the game away. Singer finished 22-37 for 260 yards with three interceptions but she also ran for 67 yards on 14 tries with two touchdowns. Roebuck pulled in six catches for 118 yards, Myers-Rebidas had eight catches for 71 yards, Monson had four catches for 35 yards and Griffin had four catches with 31 yards.

For Desert Vista, Creech had 34 yards passing and 33 yards rushing with a 2-yard scoring run, Jimenez had 97 yards passing with a touchdown and 21 yards rushing, Dagons had 80 yards receiving with a touchdown and Swindle had 16 yards receiving.

The rankings are updated every Tuesday and No. 6 Marana is 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the 6A Central Region. The Tigers will travel to No. 7 Mountain Pointe (4-3, 0-0) on Wednesday and No. 10 Desert Vista (4-3, 0-1) will host No. 12 Queen Creek (4-3, 0-0) on Wednesday night also.

NOTE: The Marana turf was damaged during a severe storm on Aug. 17 and this was the first home game for the flag football team this season.

The Marana turf was pulled off the surface and under water after a major storm in August. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)