Turnovers? Marana had five of them. Points off of turnovers? Maricopa scored three touchdowns off of Marana turnovers and another after the Tigers gave up the ball on downs rather than punting when the game was close.

28 points proved too much for Marana to overcome and Maricopa ran away with a 35-14 win Thursday night to improve their record to 2-4 and Marana fell to 3-3.

"Coach always tells us to take advantage of turnovers and that's what we did," said Maricopa junior quarterback Aaron Owens. "We came out to play and we did our job after a good week of practice."

Marana started out well with a 61-yard opening scoring drive that was punctuated by great runs from Elijah Fant that accounted for 52 yards of the drive to help set up a 2-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Connor Leavens to senior Anthony Romero.

Down 7-0, Owens led the Rams down the field on a 67-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard run from Hezekiah Turner to tie things up at 7-7 with 3:11 left in the first. Marana committed their first turnover on the next drive but the interception by Geovanni Walker did not account for anything and Maricopa was forced to punt.

Marana fumbled two plays later at their own 31 and Owens ran the ball in a few plays later to give Maricopa a 14-7 lead. Marana recovered and Leavens hit Caleb Reeves on a huge 29-yard scoring pass to tie the game up again with 3:09 left in the half. The score came on a 3rd-and-17.

Maricopa punted with 2:08 left and Marana was in business and drove down the Maricopa's 17-yard line but another fumble gave the Rams the ball back with 1:03 left. Maricopa ran a couple of plays to set up a 3rd-and-11 but Owens remained true to his word and hit Elisha Donaldson on an 82-yard pass to put Maricopa up for good, 21-14 at the half.

Bradley Gonzales is Marana's second leading rusher but he was unavailable due to an injury, forcing Andy Litten into calling upon others to pick up some of his plays. "We found out our tailback was injured and had to sit but our younger kids still played their tails off," explained Litten.

"The turnovers hurt us and we go into every game to win but this was a huge game. I'm proud of our guys because they kept on fighting."

A win would have given Marana a 4-2 record heading into a very winnable game at Casa Grande (1-5) next week. It might have been a season-turning victory but it was not to be. Instead, Maricopa made a slight move up in the rankings but they will be tested again next week when they host Canyon del Oro (4-2).

Coming out of the break, Maricopa gave Marana the ball back on a fumble but the Tigers were forced into a 4th-and-4 at Maricopa's 48-yard line. Rather than punt, only down 21-14, Marana elected to run the ball and Maricopa got it back on downs in great field position.

Boom, Owens hit Walker on a 52-yard pass to put Maricopa up 28-14. Johnnie Johnson came up with an interception three plays later and Owens hit Walker again, this time for 19 yards to put Maricopa up 35-14 with 4:58 left in the third.

Marana would give the ball back on another fumble late in the fourth but each team traded punts the rest of the way.

Owens finished 15-16 for 262 yards and four touchdowns. Walker pulled down 109 yards with two TDs and Donaldson had 82 yards and a score.  Isacc Pickett led the ground attack for Maricopa with 39 yards.

Fant rushed for 94 yards on 21 carries to lead Marana and Reeves added 32 more. Leavens finished with 61 yards passing and Joe Kidd threw for 38 in the final quarter. Reeves had 49 yards receiving.

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