Glendale Apollo was moving the ball, but it kept hurting itself with penalties, a common occurrence this season.  

But when it needed to convert late in each half of its first round state game, Apollo executed flawlessly. The poise Apollo displayed in two drives with the clock winding down and a bone-jarring hit made by a special teams player helped take the air out of Phoenix Horizon during Apollo’s 24-20 home victory Friday night.

Apollo quarterback Jordan Gungl threw just his fifth interception of the season during an opening drive that that saw Apollo move the ball 68 yards with the help of its big offensive line. But Gungl redeemed himself for the first drive mistake during his team’s final drive of the first half.

He completed four passes, including a 1-yard touchdown pass to Justin Bishop with 19 seconds remaining in the first half to tie the game at 7-7. During that 80-yard drive that began with 1:26 left in the first half, Abe Mendivil also made a one-handed catch that accounted for 23 yards.

“Our line was doing a real good job of blocking on that drive,” Gungl said.

But Apollo still had enough time to make one more memorable play just before the second quarter ended.

On the ensuing kickoff, Apollo’s Josh Turner hit Horizon’s kick returner with so much force that the kick returner’s mouthpiece came out and landed about 10 yards away from Horizon’s player.

“That was a big hit,” Apollo coach Zack Threadgill said. “I thought that tackle, with the timing of it, was tremendous and gave us a lot of momentum going into the half.”

No. 6 seed Apollo used that momentum to help it take a 17-7 lead in the fourth quarter, with 10:31 remaining in the game.

But Horizon responded with a long scoring drive that took nearly five minutes to complete. That set up the final minute heroics by Apollo.

Apollo was facing a third-and-12 from its 33-yard line on its final drive of the game when Gungl practically threw a jump-ball pass to Apollo receiver Braxton Nickerson, who somehow caught the ball for a 29-yard play against Horizon’s depleted secondary. Threadgill convinced Nickerson, a basketball player the past two seasons, to play football this year.

Braxton caught 12 passes and nine touchdowns during the regular season. After the third down play with 4:03 remaining in the game, Apollo just kept giving the ball to its workhorse, running back Nico Bayless, who eventually finished his team’s final drive with a 1-yard score.

Apollo’s (10-1) Division II quarterfinal opponent will be No. 3 seed Tucson Ironwood Ridge.

“The kids bounced back from that early turnover,” Threadgill said. “That’s one of the things I’m most proud about with this team. They were able to handle that adversity tonight.”