When the Cougars of Raymond S. Kellis High School took the field Friday night in front of their home crowd, losers of three straight and suffering from an apparent collapse after starting the season 5-0, they knew it would take a special night to keep their slim playoff hopes alive - and special it was.

Late in the fourth quarter, trailing 14-8, the Cougars appeared to be on the brink of their fourth consecutive loss. With the Rams driving, the clock winding down and out of timeouts, the Cougars would need a miracle. That miracle came when senior cornerback Jeremy Martinez intercepted Maricopa quarterback Alec Smith on fourth-and-12, returning the ball to the Kellis 47-yard line.

“Coach said bat it down,” said Martinez after the game. “So, I tried batting it down, and then it just happened to land in my hands. Great blocking from my team. I managed to go down field,and it led to a great opportunity for the offense to go down and score.”

And score they did. The rejuvenated Cougars offense, which had been practically dormant since the first quarter, wasted no time taking advantage, engineering a four-play, 53-yard drive, capped by a 40-yard reception from receiver Dylan Naylor, who bobbed and weaved his way to the end zone.

The Cougars added a successful 2-point conversion as quarterback Cade Peterson took it in himself, giving the Cougars a 16-14 advantage with 53.8 seconds remaining.

The Rams would not go quietly, however, and moved the ball into Kellis territory on the ensuing drive when Smith found receiver Jacob Cowing, who beat the Kellis secondary for a 20-yard reception on a third and long. But the Kellis defense, as it had done most of the night, stood tall once again, and forced Maricopa into a 48-yard field goal attempt with seven seconds remaining.

But the Rams would never even get the ball up in the air as the snap was fumbled and the Kellis defense quickly swarmed to the ball, smothering any thought of a return attempt as the clock hit double zeros.

“Shout out to all of my teammates,” said Martinez on his team’s effort Friday. “No matter what the situation, we’re always on each other. We’re heads up, don’t sit down, don’t look down, heads up. We just kept on pushing forward, we knew we had opportunities, so we just saw our opportunity, we pushed, and we got it.”

Perhaps the brightest aspect to the Kellis victory on Friday, was the play of its defense. In addition to the two key stops late in the ball game, the Cougars allowed just 14 points on 331 yards to the Rams, while forcing Maricopa into six punts, adding two takeaways, and willing the Cougars to victory.

“Our kids kept fighting. We kept meeting on the sideline, trying to fix a way to get them,” said Kellis head coach Shawn Copeland. “The defense played great except for maybe one play, so I’m very proud of the effort of our defense.”

The Cougars will now look ahead to next weekend as their season is once again be on the line when they welcome in the Eagles from Ironwood in the 2017 regular season finale.

The Eagles have largely struggled this year, finding themselves in the cellar of the 5A Metro Region, falling to 0-4 in regional play and 2-7 overall after Week 9 play. Despite this, however, Copeland and his team know that the Eagles are not to be overlooked, especially with playoff hopes still hanging in the balance.

“We know (Ironwood is) going to give us a battle so we got to be ready,” said Copeland. “Just like I asked (the players) at the end of the game, ‘what do we got to do?’, and they said, ‘go to work’. As long as they keep that focus in mind, we’ll be ready to come out here and battle Ironwood, because I know they’ll be ready for us.”