No. 4 Pusch Ridge Christian Academy Lions defeated the visiting No. 13 Blue Ridge Yellow Jackets 43-0 in the first round of the 3A playoffs on Friday night at Pusch Ridge.
This was a rematch of last year’s first-round playoff game in which Blue Ridge traveled to Pusch Ridge and got the win 20-17, ending the Lions’ season.
Pusch Ridge (10-1) will host No. 12 Paradise Honors (7-4) Friday at 7 p.m. in a quarterfinal game. Paradise Honors lost to Sabino in the 3A championship game last season.
“There wasn’t much of a revenge factor; we knew they were a good football team and knew they were going to play hard,” Pusch Ridge coach Kent Middleton said of the win over Blue Ridge. “We knew we had to come in here and perform real well and we did.”
It was a slow first quarter, with the teams in a scoreless tie. The Yellow Jackets (7-4) threw an interception on their first drive and then punted and the Lions (10-1) missed a 37-yard field goal.
On the first play of the second quarter, Pusch Ridge quarterback Jacob Newborn ran in a 2-yard touchdown to put Pusch Ridge up 7-0.
Blue Ridge was forced to punt on its next drive as the Lions defense, who had already posted five shutouts before this game, again dominated.
On a 4th and 3 at its own 40, Pusch Ridge perfectly executed a fake punt, with running back Sawyer Allen running for 36 yards on the play.
“We had seen in film that they played their inside tackles wide and played real soft on their punt return. We saw that we could run our Wolf play and got a big first down,” said Middleton.
The Lions were able to capitalize, scoring a touchdown just a couple plays later on another Newborn run, this one from 11 yards. The score was 13-0 Pusch Ridge with 4:58 left in the half, after the extra point was missed.
This score held until halftime, with the Yellow Jackets punting and then the Lions running out the rest of the clock.
After Pusch Ridge received the second half kickoff, Newborn found receiver Elliot Lovett for a 60-yard touchdown to go up 20-0.
After a Blue Ridge punt, Pusch Ridge went three and out and punted the ball back to the Yellow Jackets. The punt was muffed by Blue Ridge and Pusch Ridge recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown to make the score 27-0 with 5:23 left in the third quarter.
The Lions got the ball back quickly after another Blue Ridge punt and struck again, with Newborn finding receiver Dominic Painter for a 65-yard touchdown. After an unsuccessful 2-point conversion the score was 33-0 Pusch Ridge towards the end of the third quarter. This score would remain at the end of the quarter.
With 6:20 left, Pusch Ridge running back Blake Reed ran in a 5-yard touchdown to make it 40-0.
After a muff recovered by Pusch Ridge on the ensuing kick return, Tyler Nolan hit a 36-yard field goal to extend the lead to 43-0.
Recommended for you
