Marana defeats Mountain View (Mesa) on the road in AZ Cardinals Game of the Week

On Tuesday night, the battle of two 6A juggernaut teams took place. The Mountain View Toros hosted the Marana Tigers in one of the most anticipated games of the 2025 season. 

Marana ended up beating Mountain View 17-7 in a defensively-predicated game.

The tone and message were sent before the game even kicked off. 

Marana won the coin toss and elected to start off with the ball, something that is very rare in flag football. What followed were four words from  Marana athlete Malaysia Roebuck, which made the Tigers' mindset very clear for the game. 

“We want the ball,” Roebuck said multiple times.

While this may seem insignificant, it made it obvious that Marana wanted to be aggressive on both sides of the ball tonight and go back home with a win. 

The game started a little bit slow for both sides, but Marana was able to get points up on the board first late in the first quarter. 

The first scoring drive by the Tigers had three major plays in them. 

To begin the drive, Marana freshman wide receiver Sophia Silverstein had a catch and run of 33 yards. 

Two plays later, Roebuck made a ridiculous contested catch for 23 yards. 

Then, to cap it all off, Marana freshman quarterback Isabella Garcia found sophomore wide receiver Mazie Brown for a 7-yard touchdown.

Roebuck had the confidence in her team to score first after the coin toss, and she and her team backed it up.

“We had to come out here and score,” Roebuck said. “We had to put our team on the map and keep going.”

Keeping the momentum going, just one play into Mountain View's drive following Marana’s touchdown, Roebuck snagged an interception to give her offense the ball right back. 

The Tigers had to settle for a field goal. Marana senior kicker Jimena Resendiz Hernandez made a 42-yard field goal to give the Tigers a 10-0 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Tigers' defense stood strong once again.

They got their second interception of the game, this time it was by Marana’s senior defensive back, Roxi Singer. 

Singer, now in her senior season and third year with the program, knows she and the defense have to step up even more now than they were previously. 

“Our defense had to keep it to where the other team wasn’t scoring,” Singer said. “We kept picking each other up when bad things happened, and that was really key.”

Marana was able to keep Mountain View out of the endzone for the entire first half and went into halftime up 10-0. 

The Toros started with the ball in the second half and put together what could be the longest offensive drive of the season. 

Mountain View’s junior quarterback Tierah Metcalf gave her team a fighting chance as she kept extending plays and converting fourth downs with her legs and arm. 

She then found Mountain View’s junior wide receiver Ginny Wilson for a 21-yard gain to set them up on Marana’s eight-yard line. 

The 8:37-minute drive ended when Mountain View’s senior wide receiver Morgen Messer took a direct snap and scampered into the endzone for an 8-yard touchdown. 

Offensive drives stalled for both teams yet again early into the fourth quarter.

When they needed another big play the most, Marana’s defense delivered yet again.

They got their third interception of the night, this time it was snagged by senior linebacker Sadie Brown, who was able to stop the Toros from taking the lead.

Marana head coach Shaun Lara has coached a consistently good defense for the past three seasons. 

Statistically, if you look at the last three years, our defense is one of the best in the state,” Lara said. “We put the girls in good positions and let them play.”

The Toros got the ball back one last time after senior athlete Emma Fischbeck got an interception.

The drive ultimately didn't amount to much, as Mountain View had to punt the ball and give Marana a chance to put the game away. 

Marana did just that.

The Tigers got positive yardage almost every play on the drive and at one point landed them at the Toros' one-yard line. 

Marana went to their go-to target one last time. 

Garcia threw a perfect fade route to her number one target, Roebuck, and just like countless times before, Roebuck came down with the contested catch for a 1-yard touchdown, and the game was out of reach. 

Roebuck always has an extra fire lit under her, and against a tough opponent in Mountain View, she made sure to give it all that she had.

“We were not coming all the way over here to lose,” Roebuck said. “Our team worked our butt off today.”

Next up: 2-0 Marana will go back to Southern AZ to take on rival Mountain View Marana. 1-1 Mountain View will visit  1-2 Williams Field.