Tucson High opened up the season with a 30-13 victory on the road Friday night but the win at Mountain View was not an easy as the final score suggests. The game was in doubt well into the fourth quarter with the rain and a few lightning bolts delaying that outcome until 10:40 p.m., almost four hours after the first whistle.

Tucson head coach Zach Neveleff. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

There were some big performances on the field with Dillion Flannigan-Jones collecting 125 yards rushing on 12 carries with two touchdowns, Josh Cota rushing for 127 yards on 18 carries and Ezra Spivey pulling in three catches for 74 yards for the Badgers and Drake Davies rushing for 155 yards on 19 carries with two scores and Vincent Nguyen throwing for 194 yards (16-30) for the Mountain Lions.

Even with all the yards gained, Tucson held onto a 7-0 through the first half until Brenton Coleman hit Isaac Fierros from 37 yards out to put his team up 14-0 with 9:56 left in the third quarter. The Badgers went up 7-0 with 8:12 left in the first on an 11 yard rush from Flannigan-Jones but both teams stalled from there.

Mountain View responded to the Flannigan-Jones TD with a drive that produced a first and goal at the six but a fumble ended that drive. There were six punts in the fist half which helped slow the game down a bit but Mountain View had one more shot but the half ended with the ball sitting at the Badger 10 as time expired.

The second half produced the 14-0 lead for Tucson and an onside kick put the Badgers back in business and Flannigan-Jones scored from three yards out to put the Badgers up 20-0 on a missed extra point with 5:54 left in the third. Mountain View drove down to the 13 but the drive ended on downs.

A lightning strike delayed the game four seconds into the fourth quarter and the game resumed at 10:05 p.m. while final scores from around Southern Arizona were staring to come in. Waleed Al Jashami connected on a 39-yard field goal to put the Badgers up 23-0 with 9:01 left but Davis broke free on a 75-yard dash to cut the score down to 23-6 with a missed two-point attempt with 8:01 left.

Cota put the Badgers back in business with a 42-yard run to help set up a short run to put his team up 30-6 with 5:35 left. Davis cut the lead back down to 30-13 with 3:34 left but Tucson ran the clock out for the win.

Mountain View (0-1) came in ranked No.1 6 in the 5A Conference under the new MaxPreps formula and Tucson (1-0) was ranked No. 21. The new set of rankings will be released on Sunday. Tucson will visit 6A No. 16 Salpointe (1-0) next Friday and Mountain View hosts No. 48 Trevor G. Browne (0-1).

Mountain View head coach Matt Johnson. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)