With the score tied at 36, Skyline faced a fourth-and-10 on their 30-yard line and less than five minutes to go.

They pulled out the final play in the book.

Quarterback Steven Castles threw a short route Darius Glover. He didn’t come down with the pass. Instead, he tipped it behind him to Aaron Wood, who ran for a first down.

Two plays later, Skyline scored the game-winning touchdown.

“The kids called for it and we said run with it, go ahead,” said head coach Angelo Paffumi. “We had no other choice.”

Skyline won 43-36.

Standout performer

Marcus Brown: Provided a deep threat for Skyline, catching three passes for 141 yards. He corralled a tipped pass and ran it 55 yards for a touchdown, and had five wildcat carries as well, scoring on a four-yard run.

Castle completed 50 percent of his passes, and Brown provided a huge boost for the offense.

More standouts

Jeremiah Hollen: Hollen did it all for the Toros. Mountain View (3-3) relied on him for in short yardage situations, and he had three short rushing touchdowns and converted a two-point conversion.

On the defensive end, his pick-six was called back due to a penalty and he almost had a fumble recovery on a toss that was ruled a forward pass.

He deflected praise when talking about his role, preferring to compliment his team.

“We just can’t have any of the small mental mistakes,” he said. “If we pick up on those, we can beat the great teams.”

Aaron Wood: As he has for all this season, Wood led the offensive charge. He had 24 carries for 90 yards and scored two late touchdowns: the first gave Skyline (4-3) a 36-29 lead and the second won the game.

Star watch

Mountain View quarterback Brandon Nuñez played one of his better games of the season. Trailing 36-29, he marched his team down the field, going 6-for-7 with 71 yards and scoring a touchdown. On the final drive, Nuñez had one minute to get his team down the field. He got the Toros to the six-yard line but a dropped pass in the end zone on fourth down ended the game.

Stat of the game

Not including any yards from the near-pick six, the teams combined for 75 lost yards due to penalties in the first quarter alone.

Skyline was hit hard throughout the game, including one on the coach.

“A lot of it I bring on myself because I need to work a little better with the referees,” Pafummi said. “I’ll just say that.”

Quote of the game

“It doesn’t matter how you win, it’s like pizza,” Pafummi said. “There’s good pizza and there’s bad pizza, but you’re still eating pizza, so, we’re going to eat pizza tonight.”

Up next

Mountain View will play against Red Mountain and Skyline will play at Mesa.