Tucson High was down 13-0 to Tucson Sunnyside with 2:21 left in the game. It was almost worse than what it seemed. The Badgers only had three first downs, had punted six times, gave up the ball twice on downs, and fumbled the ball away on the 3-yard line. To add insult, one of their punts resulted in a touchdown for Sunnyside.

It was time for Jorge Flores to step up. Flores had to scramble just to collect the  66 yards passing he had to that point and then something clicked. An 18-yard pass to Nicholas Sandoval and a 7-yard strike to Austin Perkins helped bring the ball down to the 23-yard line but it also resulted in a fourth down with some minor gains on the ground thrown in.

Robert Thomas came through with a 7-yard gain and then Flores found Quinton Anzalone in the end zone from 17 yards out with 32.3 seconds left in the game. The extra point was missed and it turned out to have a major impact on the game.

Down 13-6 with 32.3 seconds left, Tucson High had one chance at an onsides kick and it was perfectly executed and the Badgers had the ball again at Sunnyside's 37.

Flores hit Anzalone for 17 yards and he followed that with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Lawrence Wallace with 15.9 second left. This time the kick was good and the score was suddenly tied at 13-13.

The Badgers had scored twice in a little over 16 seconds to force overtime. 

Sunnyside also had difficulty moving the ball. They had punted four times and only had two first downs in the first half but they had a 7-0 lead thanks to an 82-yard punt return from Mike Grijalva in the second quarter.

Then came junior quarterback Nick O'Hagin.  He orchestrated a 70-yard touchdown drive that was kept alive by an unsportsmanlike penalty to rescue the Blue Devils from a fourth down situation at the 12-yard line.

Anthony Peralta ran the ball in a couple of plays later to give Sunnyside a 13-0 lead after that extra point failed. Both teams seem to revert to earlier play with four punts and two fumbles until Tucson pulled off the magical ending to regulation.

Each team got a chance at the 10-yard line in overtime and the game suddenly turned into a video game. O'Hagin took the ball 10-yards on the first snap to put Sunnyside up 20-13. Then DeAndre Williams sprinted to the corner to tie it back up 20-20.

It looked like Sunnyside would win in the second overtime after Flores fumbled on the first play but the Blue Devils ran the ball twice and tried a kick on third down but the 33-yard field goal was missed setting up triple overtime.

O'Hagin scored again to put Sunnyside up 27-20. Tucson had difficulty responding this time setting up a fourth-and-goal from the six and the next pass fell incomplete, giving Sunnyside the 27-20 victory.

"We'll take a win any way we can get it," said Sunnyside head coach Glenn Posey. "The kid's fought hard and it was an ugly win with some questionable calls but we earned it. I told the guys this was getting tough on our toes because we keep on shooting ourselves in the foot."

The win evened out Sunnyside's record to 2-2 with one more non-sectional game scheduled against Yuma Cibola (3-1) on Friday, September 26.

Tucson High fell to 2-2 after the loss but head coach Justin Argraves saw something he liked late in the game.

"I asked you to fight your hearts out and you did," Argraves told his team. "I'm proud that you showed heart. If you have heart and fight like you did at the end then not a lot of teams can play with you."

Like Sunnyside, Tucson High has one more game scheduled before they get into their sectional games. They will travel to Mesa High (1-2) next Friday.

O'Hagin finished with 126 yards passing (7-14) with Grijalva pulling in 101 of those yards on six catches. O'Hagin also led Sunnyside with 71 yards rushing and Peralta added 48 more.

Flores had 145 yards passing (9-19). Anzalone had 69 yards receiving and Matthew Kroeger had 37. Williams had 21 yards on the ground to lead the Badgers.

More photos at AllSportsTucson.com