We are in the final week of the flag football regular season and No. 8 Nogales is hoping to solidify a playoff spot in the 5A Conference with a couple of games remaining. The Apaches improved to 8-2 on the year after holding on to beat Tucson 13-6 on the road Monday night. Tucson is now 3-8, competing in the 6A Conference.

Things started out pretty quickly for the Apaches with Johanna Simpson ripping off a 39-yard run on the first play of the game which ultimately led to a 16-yard touchdown pass from Juseth Casas to Alondra Chavarin Rodriguez with 8:37 left in the first quarter. Nogales led 6-0 after a missed extra point and that held up until late in the quarter.

Emma Mendez picked up an interception for Tucson with 2:23 left and Amaya Trujillo hit Janessa Lucero for 19 yards to put the Badgers in good position and then Trujillo scrambled for seven yards to tie the game up 6-6 as the clock expired on the quarter.

A long series of punts followed until Simpson collected a 37-yard run with about eight minutes left in the game to put the Apaches at the 10 where Casas handed off to Blanca Guttierez on a hidden-ball trick play for the winning score, 13-6.

Tucson drove down to the Nogales four with 1:55 left but and incomplete pass in the end zone ended the threat. Tucson forced a punt and the Badgers got the ball back with under a minute left but Sofia Lopez came up with an interception to end the game.

Simpson ended the night with 109 yards rushing on eight attempts to lead Nogales and Trujillo collected 136 yards passing for Tucson. Tucson hosts Millennium (9-3) on Tuesday and Nogales hosts Sunnyside (8-4) the same night.

The first round of the 4A, 5A and 6A state playoffs is set for Wednesday, Nov. 13.

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