Special to AllSportsTucson from Brittany Bowyer
Brittany Bowyer is a freelance journalist who started her career as an intern for a small sports website back in 2015. Since then, she’s obtained her master’s degree in Sports Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU and is in her fourth year of covering various levels of sports across a broad range of platforms in Arizona. You can follow her on twitter @bbowyer07
LINK: MORE FROM BOWYER
The Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions came out ready to play on Friday, pulling off a stunning 28-10 upset over the Notre Dame Prep Saints, sending off their few seniors they have in memorable fashion.
It was a slow start for both teams, something uncharacteristic of the Saints. The only points came on a field goal from Notre Dame Prep about halfway through the first quarter. It was a tough pill to swallow, as senior quarterback Tyler Schweigert had two picks in the first half, and a missed field goal from 32-yards out took away the possibility of an extra three points, something that was crucial still at this point in the game.
.@NDP_Athletics scores on this pass from @tyschweigert12 to Harrison Wood. Kick is good, Mountain Ridge leads 28-10 with 4:30 remaining #MRvsNDP pic.twitter.com/39LBErmugb
— Brittany Bowyer (@bbowyer07) October 17, 2020
The Saints went into the half with the narrow 3-0 lead, but the Mountain Lions made some crucial adjustments to clean up their play and get the job done. After sophomore quarterback Brendan Anderson completed only three for 11 passes in the first half of the game, he came out focused and determined, completing nine out of ten passes in the second half for 134 yards and two touchdowns.
Meanwhile for the Saints, the struggles continued as the Ridge defense buckled down in the second half. Mountain Ridge held Notre Dame Prep to only 120 offensive yards in the second half.
Offensively for the young Mountain Ridge team, touchdowns from Anderson himself, along with sophomores Deric English, Terrance Hall and Sam Thielen gave a little showcase of what the future of the Mountain Ridge offense will look like in the future. They accounted for all 28 of the team’s points.
Anderson said this is definitely his biggest win so far, a sentiment echoed among many of the other players who are just getting their footing when it comes to starting at the varsity level.
“This is definitely a big step for us,” Anderson said. “It’s been great seeing all the things we can do, and we’re just sophomores, so it’s gonna be scary in the next few years.”
Despite a slight improvement in Schweigert’s second-half completion rate, going 10 for 14, three of those incompletions were actually interceptions. Senior cornerback Richard Wight III nabbed two of those interceptions, making three for the defensive leader on the night.
“I’m just really appreciative of my team tonight. We came out here with some energy and some effort and all the execution tonight,” Wight III said. “We all kinda knew it was coming because of the confidence we played with.”
Mountain Ridge may be a young team, but the coach says it doesn’t mean they’re not prepared for whatever gets thrown at them.
“We’re a young football team on the offensive side of the ball, we’re more regimented on the defensive side, but I think the big thing for us was just taking the next step,” Coach Doug Madowski said
“The biggest thing for us is that we just want to be a better version of ourselves. We knew we didn’t play well last week, and we had a lot of work to do, and we just want to come out and keep grinding and keep getting better,” Madowski said.
The Mountain Lions will travel to Tucson to take on Salpointe Catholic on November 6th in what is looking to shape up as an interesting matchup. Meanwhile for the Saints, there’s still a possibility that they’ll run into the Lancers somewhere along the way during the playoffs as both have long-standing pedigrees of success in football.
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