Under the Friday night lights, Marana football delivers for its fans

The Marana Tigers aim to put on a show for their fans, and they didn’t disappoint in their first tackle football playoff game.

After fireworks, Marana mayor Jon Post delivering the game ball, a police vehicle escort to the field for the Tigers and a pregame flyover from a police helicopter: Marana out-dueled Yuma Catholic on Friday.

The Tigers had scoring plays of 44, 41 and 70 yards in addition to the 56-yard game-winning touchdown by junior receiver/defensive back Jaxsun Sharp that came less than a minute after the Shamrocks took the lead.

Marana head coach Phillip Steward, who is from Missouri City, Texas, and played linebacker for Houston in college and then for the St. Louis Rams, said he’s trying to bring that Texas Friday Night Lights vibe to Southern Arizona.

“I’m trying, with the fireworks with all the glow sticks, everything that we try to do out here, I tell them this event is Friday night, this is a show we try to put on and every night we try to draw more and more people here because it’s fun playing in front of all these fans yelling and screaming (and) the band going crazy,” Steward said. “And I like for these boys to have high school memories, if anything, they’re going to say, ‘Man, we had a good high school career because what we was able to put on.’

“And so (for) me, the coaching we do, everything we can to try to make sure it’s an event, it’s a show when you come out here to the flag poles, to the lights to everything,” he added. “It all makes it worth it to come out here and play again, I’m excited about what we able to do around here.”

At 7 p.m. Friday, No. 4 Marana (10-1) hosts No. 5 Scottsdale Horizon (9-2) in the Class 5A state quarterfinals.

Marana has won 18 in a row against 5A teams; its only two losses in 2024 and 2025 were to 6A schools. This year, six of those wins came over 5A teams that made the playoffs.

“We always do it for Marana, Marana as you see (on Friday) night, people come out and watch us and I keep telling the boys, they’re going to keep coming out to watch, y’all, because I put on a good show out here, and our job is to go out there and play hard and play fast,” Steward said. “And I think (Friday) night the boys showed the town why they got to keep coming out (and) being loud. (Friday) night, I feel like we had home-field advantage, and on some of the third downs, we took advantage of it, and I think the crowd noise played a part in some of those third-down misses for them.

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“So, I’m glad we got to play in front of our own fans, we get to do it again next week, so looking forward to it.”

Marana has won three state championships, with titles in 1964, 1967 and 1968.

Sharp put on a show for his family and friends against Yuma Catholic as he had six catches for three touchdowns and 160 yards.

“It’s awesome, I love representing our community,” Sharp said. “I live right down the road, so it’s awesome to represent and have my family out here and my friends, it’s great.”

Senior quarterback Colten Meyer has passed for 8,724 yards in his career. After he threw for 427 yards against Yuma Catholic, he’s on the cusp of becoming Southern Arizona’s most prolific passer of all time.

Sabino’s Cameron Hackworth is first with 8,797 yards. Meyer recently passed Rhett Rodriguez from Catalina Foothills, who had 8,694 yards.

Along with the tackle football team, the flag football team is putting on a show. The flag Tigers (17-0) are seeded No. 2 and host No. 3 Chandler Hamilton on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Steward said the boys and girls teams feed off each other, “they win, we win, they win and we win, so, I told him, let’s keep it going.”

On Veteran’s Day, senior athlete Malaysia Roebuck received news that she was selected for the All-American Bowl.

“Yeah, our girls team, they’re nasty,” said junior receiver/defensive back Sean Roebuck. “My sister, number two, Malaysia Roebuck, she’s the No. 1 wide receiver in the nation, she’s a dog, they’re definitely gonna go out there and win state.”