For Kevin Pantastico it was a night for records, big plays and near misses — and it took three hours.

SLIDESHOW: Friday Night High School Football

Unfortunately, he’s only going to remember a loss.

The Mesa Desert Ridge junior quarterback shattered the state prep passing record, throwing for an unofficial 595 yards, six touchdowns (tying a state 5A mark) and three interceptions, but Mesa Red Mountain had a star of its own, Derek Molina, who helped the Mountain Lions hold off the visiting Jaguars 43-40.

“It was nice, but we still came out with a loss,” Pantastico said after his record-setting night.

“My line was doing good, it was all about my line.”

Red Mountain coach Jim Jones said he hadn’t seen anything like it.

“In 35 years,” he said, “not even close. Not even close. Hell, I’ve never seen that many points on the scoreboard in my life.”

With 10:50 left in the game, Pantastico hit Brandon Mapalo with a 28-yard pass that surpassed the 511 yards thrown by Scott Martinez of Avondale Westview against Chandler Hamilton in 2000.

Several quarterbacks in Arizona have thrown six touchdowns in a game.

“It was a great game, it was definitely a 4- or 5-star game,” Desert Ridge coach Jeremy Hathcock said. “But we’ve had problems with the kicking game, that hurt us in the end, but the bottom line is we had four turnovers and they had less. We stopped ourselves.”

Despite the offensive output by Desert Ridge, Red Mountain stayed close with quarterback Derek Mendoza keeping his cool and Molina rushing for 211 yards. The Lions’ workhorse gained 29 yards on the winning drive, capped by Mendoza’s 1-yard plunge and subsequent 2-point conversion pass that put Red Mountain up 43-40 with 7:13 left.

Desert Ridge drove to the Red Mountain 20, but Sam Treat missed a 37-yard field goal with 4:07 left and Red Mountain was able to run out the clock to escape with its second straight win.

But the night belonged to Pantastico, who completed 23 of his 44 passes and was able to find receivers open seemingly everywhere.

“We knew going in that he was capable of that,” Jones said. “Right now, we are having problems in our secondary, and to top it off we had a team that throws the snot out of the football.”

It was shaping up to be a night to remember when Pantastico threw passes of 80 and 93 yards for touchdowns in the first eight minutes, and was 4-for-5 for 205 yards and three scores in the first quarter.

“Kevin did a good job, our receivers and the offensive line did an amazing job,” Hathcock said. “Anybody throws for that many yards, its all about the offensive line.

“He had a great coming-out party, but he still threw (three) picks, so he has to keep it in perspective.”

Desert Ridge receivers Chris Jamison and Chris Heldore each caught two of the touchdown passes. Jamison caught a 93-yarder in the first half and then had an 80-yard catch-and-run in the third period to give the Jaguars a 40-35 lead.

Red Mountain’s Kris Moksvold intercepted a Pantastico pass late in the first half to give Red Mountain a 28-27 halftime lead after the Lions trailed 20-7 early.