An outline of a face mask creased into his right arm, and welts covering his shins, Marana quarterback Robert Rowe limped off the field at Sahuaro High School sporting a broad grin.
The senior quarterback had just orchestrated a 14-play, 76-yard drive, capped by an 18-yard field goal from Zebulon Rosemore with 3.5 seconds left to give the Tigers (3-2) a come-from-behind 16-13 triumph at Sahuaro (2-3).
Sure, the win felt great. But Rowe said he was just glad to be still standing.
"It was a really physical game. I'm hurting and I'm gonna be sore. But I'm really happy to be walking out of here and getting on the bus with the W," said Rowe.
The same could not be said for Sahuaro's top two players.
Standout running back Ricky Solomon left late in the first half with an apparent left ankle injury. He did not play a snap for the final 24 minutes.
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The Cougars' other main threat, fullback Danny Alvarez, who doubles as Sahuaro's best linebacker, left the game with under two minutes to play in the second quarter with what he later said was a concussion. An update on his condition was unavailable.
"Any time you lose starters like those two guys, that affects you. But that's why this is a team game," said Sahuaro coach Chuck McCollum. "We didn't fold with those two guys gone."
Neither team's offense was particularly in tune in the first half; they played to a 6-6 tie going into halftime.
Sahuaro opened the scoring on a 4-yard run from Solomon with 9:17 to play in the second quarter, then failed to register the extra point.
Marana running back Jon Cummings, who finished with 140 yards, evened the score at 6 on a 7-yard run with 6:33 to go in the half. The Tigers also failed to add the point after.
Without Solomon and Alvarez, the Cougars struggled mightily. They scored their only points of the final two quarters on a 97-yard kickoff return from Vito Faraci on the first play of the second half.
Rowe knotted the game at 13 with a 3-yard burst into the end zone with 6:39 left in the game.
After the Marana defense forced a punt, Rowe and the Tigers took over on their own 33 with less than four minutes remaining.
They proceeded to pound the ball straight at the Cougars.
Rowe converted a crucial third-and-nine situation on Sahuaro's 24 by shaking two tackles and spinning out of another, keeping the drive alive, and setting up Rosemore's late heroics.
"We didn't have any timeouts left — used them all trying to get down the field. So we had to run our field goal unit out there and get the kick off quickly," said Marana coach Willie Dudley. "It was a calculated risk that paid off."
Marana 16
Sahuaro 13
