It looked like South Mountain and Tucson High were headed towards an overtime clash in Tucson on Tuesday but South Mountain senior captain Aujurea Morton picked off a tipped pass with 1:52 left in the game and she ran it back 18 yards to help secure a 7-0 victory to move the Jaguars to a 3-2 record.

Tucson fell to 1-4 in the team’s inaugural season and the Badgers have two weeks to prepare for a visit to Desert View (1-3) on Oct. 15. South Mountain will host Westwood (0-5) Friday night.

Tucson and South Mountain battled back and forth but interceptions turned each team back several times. The Badgers had an excellent opportunity in the final minutes of the first half after freshman Emma Mendez came up with an interception with 4:55 left in the second quarter. Senior quarterback Amaya Trujillo connected on a 22-yrd pass to Mendez to move the Badgers to the 28, a pass to Bella Gonzales put the ball at the 21 and then Michelle Cornidez rushed to the 10. And incomplete pass was followed by an interception from Adurina Tucker and the half ended 0-0.

Things remained even with Twyla Betoney picking up an interception for the Jaguars with 8:51 left in the game but South Mountain was forced to punt two minutes later. Trujillo collected an interception for the Badgers with three minutes left in the game but Morton came up with her game-winning interception three players later.

Still, the Badgers had one more shot with Bethany Linares collecting another interception with 1:27 left but the Jaguar defense held the rest of the way.

Trujillo threw for 84 yards in the loss with Gonzles pulling in 39 of those yards and Treasure Michaux and Betoney combined for 76 yards passing for the Jaguars. Tucker had 45 yards receiving.

Twyla Betoney. (Andy Morales/AZPresp365)