2024 Flag Football

Duel in the District delivers: Sunnyside beats Desert View in OT in first flag football game

Posted on
Share



Sunnyside’s Kassandra Flores tries to avoid Desert View’s Nohemy Espinoza in Monday night’s first flag football game between the two southside rivals (Gilbert Alcaraz/AllSportsTucson.com)

Desert View’s folklorico dancers and dance team created a festive atmosphere at Jaguar Stadium honoring Hispanic Heritage Month, and the Jaguars and neighborhood rival Sunnyside went overtime to provide entertainment to the very end in the first flag football game in the history of the Duel in the District.

The schedule makers did not create a home-and-home arrangement for the Duel in the District, which is unfortunate because Monday night’s classic deserves a sequel.

Sunnyside won 14-13 in overtime to improve to 3-0 in its inaugural season behind the athleticism of junior Anyssa Lerma at quarterback (she scored the go-ahead touchdown in overtime with a 2-yard run) and on defense (she batted down Desert View’s 2-point coversion pass attempt in the end zone to end the game).

Overtime consists of each team getting at least one possession from the 10-yard line with a set of four downs.

“In overtime, I told myself, ‘You’re not going to force a pass.’ This is what we worked on for the entire game,” Lerma said of her scoring run on third down in overtime. “We didn’t give up during the game; we all worked as hard as we can. I didn’t want to let up one big moment because of a mistake.”

Lerma eluded defenders on her way to the end zone on sweep to the right.

Katherine Espinoza made the point-after attempt to give Sunnyside a 14-7 lead.

Desert View answered behind freshman quarterback Elisia Tucker, who completed a 5-yard pass to senior playmaker Cristal Mora before connecting on a 5-yard touchdown strike on third down to sophomore Zarriyana Bacon.

Desert View coach Richard Riesgo, whose program is also playing flag football for the first time, called timeout to contemplate going for the win with a 2-point conversion rather than try the extra-point kick.

He decided to go for the win with the ball placed at the 10-yard line.

“My last name is Riesgo, that means ‘risk’ in Spanish,” said Riesgo, whose team is 1-2 with the two losses very close (the Jaguars lost 7-0 to Nogales last week).

“I do what I need to do. I gave it a shot. I wanted to go for the win. I didn’t want to go for the tie and do it all over.”

A pass intended to Bacon just inside the end zone was batten down by Lerma.

Sunnyside celebrated the victory briefly before joining its neighborhood rival for a group photo near midfield. Many of the players attended the same middle schools within the Sunnyside Unified School District.

Superintendent Jose Gastellum was in attendance as were many teachers, staff and family members known by players on both teams.

“I just read the ball, saw the quarterback’s eyes and once they shifted from one side to the other side, I just locked down the person she was looking at and that’s all I saw,” Lerma said of her game-saving pass deflection.

Sunnyside appeared as though it could overpower Desert View after its first possession of the game.

Lerma engineered a nine-play, 55-yard drive that was capped by her 13-yard touchdown pass to Isela Rodriguez with 3:01 left in the first quarter.

Although Sunnyside and Desert View each had three possessions the remainder of the half, the score remained 7-0 in favor of the Blue Devils at halfime.

“My girls … we’re always the sister school here,” Riesgo said. “If you look at our uniforms, our uniforms are stuck in Germany (as an order). We’re using varsity (tackle) uniforms. It is what it is.

“I told the girls they’re not better than us. Just because they have ‘Blue Devils’ on their shirt, they’re not better than us. They proved it in the second half. We scored and kept them down. They were averaging 34 points a game (38-0 win at Maricopa Desert Sunrise and 30-7 win at home against Buena) and they only got seven off of us (in regulation). I’m proud of these ladies.”

Desert View scored on its first possession of the second half after Sunnyside failed to get a first down at the 50-yard line on a fourth-and-10 attempt.

The Jaguars went the 50 yards in seven plays, culminating with Tucker’s 5-yard pass to Mora on a fourth-down play with 3:13 left in the third quarter. Mora’s point-after kick tied the game at 7.

Tucker completed all five of her pass attempts in the drive for 47 yards, including a 20-yard pass to Mora and a 12-yard strike to A.J. Bernal.

Neither team could get closer than the opponents’ 41-yard line in the last seven possessions of regulation combined.

Lerma’s heroics, with the talent of her teammates around her, followed in overtime.

“We definitely got tested today, which is good; we needed it, to be honest with you,” said Sunnyside coach Alfredo Lerma, Anyssa’s father. “Desert View has a great team, a great defense. They’re very quick.

“I love games like this in a way because it just tests you. They took us to deep waters and brought some good stuff out of us.”

Sunnyside plays at Mesa Westwood (0-3) on Wednesday at 5 p.m. before traveling to Marana Mountain View (1-0) on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Desert View will next play at Buena (1-1) on Thursday at 6 p.m.

FOLLOW @JAVIERJMORALES ON TWITTER!

ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

print
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Related Items:, , , , ,

Recommended for you

Comments
To Top