The opening game for the 2025 4A flag football season was a familiar one.

It was the same as last game played in the 2024 campaign as defending state champion St. Mary’s hosted runner-up Prescott Monday to begin the year.

The Badgers were able to flip the scoreboard in the rematch, while also summoning a bit of a flashback to last year’s game, in winning 20-0 to exact a bit of satisfaction after last year’s defeat.

With both team’s dealing with first game offensive struggles, Prescott dialed up a hook and ladder call – the same play it scored its only TD on in 10-7 loss in December – to ignite the offense.

“I loved the play call, and I knew we scored on it last year,” senior Maggie Maneely, who was the hook on the play. “

Prescott quarterback Brianna Aguilar hit Maggie Maneely at about the 30, and then she flipped it to Aubrey Kitahata as she scooted down the sideline for a 6-0 lead after the PAT failed win the second quarter.

“We knew it was going to work,” Aguilar said. “A few players kept staying ‘It’s going to work. It’s going to work.’ Finally, we trusted it, and I had to thread the needle a little bit to Maggie, and she got the pitch off.

“We worked a lot over the summer for this game but now it’s over with we can check that box and move on to the next one.”

It was clear throughout the game that Prescott was the more athletic and experienced team after the Knights relied heavily on a senior class last year. With that said, St. Mary’s didn’t let the game get out of hand because the defensive effort led to several flag pulls when defenders fought through blocks or gave up their bodies to make lunging tackles.

Sophomore Ava Gonzalez and Dariana Salas led the way in keeping the Badgers from scoring on big plays on the outside with their superior speed.

“We are going to rely on the defense to start the year,” St. Mary’s coach Michael Espinoza, whose team were missing two starters, said. “That’s an explosive offense and you can tell they’ve played together for a sometime. The only thing that kept it from getting bad was our effort from our defense.”

Prescott was able get a second score with two big plays in the final minutes to go up 13-0 at the half after No. 9 intercepted a pass with 41 seconds left in the game.

Aguilar connected with a receiver to the 1-yard line and timeout was called with one second left. Aguilar took it in on a QB sneak for what seemed to be an insurmountable two-score lead.

“That one hurt,” Espinoza said. “We’ve gave up the ball in the final minute, and the defense had been on the field a long time. (Prescott) got it down there, called the timeout and that quarterback is hard to stop in that situation.”

The Badgers scored on the second possession of the third quarter when Aguilar pulled the ball down and used her superior speed to find the corner pylon from 11-yards out and a 20-0 lead.

After that the defense, which finished with three interceptions, made sure the shutout remained intact by keeping everything in front and pulling the flag anytime it looked like the St. Mary’s offense was about to get some flow.

“They all bought in and trust each other,” Prescott coach Ryan Hart said of the defense. “When you can have a unit do that, they can do something special.”

St. Mary's Sylvia Garcia carries the ball in the losss ot Prescott on Monday in the season opener for both teams. (Paul Campell/MaxPreps)

And of course, earning a win to get some semblance of retribution - even though it’s a new season and there was plenty of roster turnover – from last year’s difficult defeat is a pretty special way to start the year.

Make no mistake it was going to a much different ride back toward the Bradshaw Mountains and north central Arizona.

“It’s been a long offseason,” Hart said. “It was something we all had in the back of our heads. It was right there, front center as our first challenge and we stepped up for it.”