No. 18 Sunnyside junior quarterback Anyssa Lerma threw for 308 yard with three touchdowns to help the Blue Devils get past No. 27 Corona del Sol 26-7 Tuesday night at home. It was a convincing victory for Sunnyside after the Blue Devils found themselves ranked outside of the top 16 in the initial AIA power-rankings released earlier in the day. The top 16 teams based on rankings from each of the three conferences will advance to the three state tournaments slated to start on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

Unlike tackle football, the flag football rankings will be updated daily from Tuesday to Friday due to the nature of games being played almost every night and on Saturdays. The tackle football rankings are released once a week, every Tuesday afternoon.

In addition, the first three rounds of the state playoffs for flag football will be played at the site of the higher seed with the state championships all taking place at Chandler High School on Saturday, Nov. 23 at noon for 4A, 3 p.m. for 5A and 6 p.m. for 6A.

Mountain View Mesa won the 6A state title over Mountain Ridge 10-7 last year and Campo Verde won the 5A state title over Canyon View 14-13. There was no 4A Conference in the inaugural season last year but there are 101 ranked teams in the state this year compared to only 54 teams last year and the numbers are expected to climb again next fall.

Sunnyside scored first on a 25-yard field goal from Katherine Espinoza with 2:29 left in the first quarter and Lerma found Essney Lazo from 25 yards out to put the Blue Devils up 10-0 on Corona del Sol with 9:03 left in the half.

Lerma hit Kassandra Flores from 58 yards out to make it 16-0 on a missed extra point with 7:03 left in the half. Corona del Sol marched down the field to start the second half with Bridget Leyva connecting with freshman Sofia Villone for 48 yards on two receptions but Alicia Guzman came up with an interception for the Blue Devils to end the threat.

Sunnyside turned the turnover into more points with Flores making a 25-yard kick of her own to make it 19-0 with 2:45 left in the third quarter. Lerma connected with Jayceona Rodriguez from five yards out to make it 26-0 with 11:12 left in the game but Bryce Watson marched the Aztecs down the field and she hit Leyva from 13 yards out on fourth down to cut the lead down to 26-7 with 5:34 left and that was the final score.

Besides Lerma’s 308 yards passing on 21-of-35 attempts, Lazo had 82 yards receiving on three catches, Flores pulled in 77 yards on four catches and Alexsandra Arce-Marquez had 77 yards receiving on four catches.

Leyva went 9-of-15 for 82 yards passing, Watson went 6-of-12 for 72 yards, Leyva had 42 yards receiving on three catches and Villone collected 87 yards receiving on five catches.

Sofia Villone. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Corona del Sol (2-7) will have another difficult game on Wednesday when the Aztecs return south to play at No. 5 Marana (6-1) while Sunnyside (7-2) will come up north to play at No. 6 Millennium (7-2) on the same night.

THE INTERVIEWS

THE PLAYS

PHOTOS

Bridget Leyva. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

Bryce Watson. (Andy Morales/AZPresp365)

Katherine Espinoza. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)