2026 High School Football

Trenton Hicks leads Marana to win over Ironwood Ridge

Posted on
Share
Marana receiver Jesse Howell grabs one of his three touchdown receptions in the Tigers’ 48-3 win over Ironwood Ridge. (Lexi Fegan/ AllSportsTucson.com)

After a tough loss to Buena last week, the Marana Tigers righted the ship dominating the Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks 48-3 in a 5A Sonoran Region matchup in Tigers Stadium on Friday night.

“We came out and put it together and worked on the things that were missing last week.” Marana quarterback Trenton Hicks said moving on from last weeks loss.

Tigers receiver Jaxsun Sharp added, “”I think practice also was a big part of this win because usually we say it starts on Monday’s, so our Monday practice was really good this week and throughout the whole entire week we just had a very good practice and that kind of just shows you how the game is probably going to go on Friday. We practiced really well this week.”

Marana (3-3, 2-1 5A Sonoran) won the coin flip and elected to receive. The Tigers took the opening drive 80 yards culminating in a fourth down 4-yard pass from Hicks to Jesse Howell for a touchdown.

The Tigers never trailed in the game thanks to a locked in defense and a Marana single-game touchdown tying night from Hicks.

“It felt great, I’m just grateful to God for this position to tie the record and just give credit to my teammates that made it possible and just happy we got the win,” Hicks said on his big night.

Hicks threw six touchdowns, three to Howell, two to Sharp and the record tying jet sweep by Owen Lindsey.

Jeffrey Smith lll added to the Marana touchdown barrage with a 15-yard run after a fumble recovery by Isaac Espinoza.

Marana, which usually uses a two-quarterback system, stuck with Hicks for the entirety of the game.

“Tonight, Trenton just got going and (the other quarterback) Isaac (Flores) told coach, ‘Hey, keep him in there, let him go,’” Marana coach Phillip Steward said.

“Trenton did a great job of running the offense tonight.”

Marana’s defense made it difficult for Ironwood Ridge (4-2, 2-1) all night, dominating the line of scrimmage and creating four turnovers —three interceptions and one fumble recovery.

The first Nighthawks turnover was caused by a hit on quarterback Max Harder that popped the ball in the air ending in the arms of Kyan Reidy for the interception.

Xzaveus Griffin intercepted Harder with a little over a minute to go in the first half and Carter Meyer grabbed the third interception of the night, returning it 20 yards to set up the 3-yard jet sweep by Lindsey that tied the single-game Tigers touchdown record for Hicks.

“We do our game plan, this quarterback has no interceptions on his record and Carter was like, ‘I’m gonna get one this week,’”said Steward.

“Proud of him, he’s been doing a really good job in the back end.”

“Our defense is very fast; we have a lot of athletes on our defense. Our linebackers have really stepped up,” Sharp said on the play of the defense.

Ironwood Ridge’s only points on the night came off of a Hayden Foster 35-yard field goal with 5:04 left in the first half.

Next up:

Marana will next travel to Casa Grande (1-5, 0-2) and Ironwood Ridge will visit Scottsdale Desert Mountain (5-1) for a non-region game. The games are Friday at 7 p.m.

“Like I keep telling the boys, week in and week out, our goal right now is to win the region. So right now, that is our only focus,” Steward said.

Social Media Roundup:

print
Related Items:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Recommended for you

Comments
To Top