No. 7 Red Mountain went into the playoffs with a 9-3 record with a 15-14 loss to eventual No. 4 Mesa Mountain View, a 28-14 loss to eventual No. 3 Marana and a 27-0 loss to eventual No. 1 Hamilton. Most had the Mountain Lions written off. An afterthought. Think again. Red Mountain beat No. 10 Gilbert 31-6 in the first round, upset No. 2 Basha 34-0 on the road in the quarterfinal round and then held on to beat No. 3 Marana 13-9 Wednesday night on the road to advance to the 6A championship game set for Saturday night against Hamilton at Chandler High at 6 p.m.

Hamilton (16-0) is the lone undefeated team in the 6A Conference and the Huskies have yet to have a close game since beating 5A Conference No. 2 Canyon View 17-7 way back on Sept. 30. The Huskies have beaten opponents by a combined 525-40 this year or, even better, an average of 33-3. Every night. Still, the Mountain Lions had a blowout win at Basha and a revenge win at Marana. It’s going to take a bit of a miracle to gain revenge against Hamilton on Saturday but that’s why we play the game. You never know.

At Marana, the Tigers scored first on a 25-yard field goal from Peyton Sharp to start the second quarter but junior quarterback Da'Koreyauna Roberts put the Mountain Lions up 7-3 on a two-yard strike to Sierra Mellish with 1:57 left in the half.

Red Mountain was driving again to start the second half but an interception from Adrian Griffin put the Tigers back in business and Sr. QB Ella Joplin responded with a 28-yard pass to Malaysia Roebuck to set up a 15-yard connection to Roebuck to put her team back up 9-7 with 4:17 left in the third.

Roberts responded with a 70-yard drive to go back up 13-9 on a two-yard pass to Mellish with 10:53 left. Marana had four chances down the stretch to take the lead but Cadence McCanless had an interception with 8:32 left and then again with 3:18 left and Mellish had an interception with 1:15 left. Marana had one final shot but Griffin was tracked down on the sideline after a 15-yard gain as time expired.

Marana finished 14-2 after going 13-1 last year with a 21-20 loss to Mountain Ridge in the quarterfinal round at home. A semifinal finiishsh this year caps an incredible 27-3 run over the last two seasons.  Joplin had an unofficial 231 yards passing with Roebuck pulling down 103 of those. Roberts had 143 yards passing for Red Mountain with a backbreaking 96 yards rushing.

Red Mountain went 14-1 last year with a 7-0 loss to Mountain Ridge at home in the semifinal round. Mesa Mountain View went on to beat Mountain Ridge 10-7 in the state championship game. We are guaranteed a new winner this year with Hamilton taking Mountain Ridge out 41-6 in the quarterfinal round and Mesa Mountain View 24-0 in the other semifinal.

Da'Koreyauna Roberts

THE PLAYS