Joe McHugh is a student jounralist at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State assigned to cover Perry High School football.

On Friday, Nov. 9th, the Perry High School Pumas bested the Mountain Ridge High School Mountain Lions 38-25, in the first round of the 6A Conference playoffs. This three-seed versus 14-seed matchup was a competitive game all the way throughout

The Mountain Lions ended up in the 14 seed with a 5-5 record in the regular season. This was leaps and bounds from what they did in the past two seasons, where they had an 18-game losing streak. Mountain Ridge Coach Doug Madoski, in his first year, was able to turn an 0-10 team into a 5-5 team in just one year. Many people might think he is the reason, but he thinks otherwise.

“The biggest thing is the understanding that you never quit,” Madoski said. “These are the same guys who went on and 18 game losing streak.”

Perry, on the other hand, is a team that made it to the state finals last year with an 8-2 record. They were looking to have a similar season, but they ended up 6-4 in the regular season, landing a three seed in the playoffs.

To start off the action, the Mountain Lions were driving down the field, finding their way into the red zone. On second down, Mountain Ridge quarterback Keegan Stancato would throw an interception to Perry defensive back Kobe Rome, who would take the ball 97 yards in the other direction for a touchdown. This would set the Pumas ahead 7-0.

“That was huge,” Perry coach Preston Jones said about the play. “The reason we had an eight-point lead at half time was because of Kobe.”

This interception would in turn jump start the Pumas offense. On their first offensive drive, the Pumas would drive down the field, capping it off with an impressive scramble and throw from Perry quarterback Chubba Purdy to receiver Cade Berger for a 35-yard touchdown.

“Nothing was open at first,” Purdy said. “I was getting ready to take off to the right of the pocket and then I saw [Berger] down there and I just stepped into my pass and threw it to him.”

The air strike wouldn’t stop there, as another dime was dropped by Purdy, this time to receiver Jorden Young. This pass was double the length of the first touchdown, totaling 75 yards.

During all this scoring the Mountain Lions could not find their stride. Four consecutive drives in the first half went as follows: Interception for a touchdown, punt, punt, punt. These offensive struggles were mainly due to the Pumas' stellar defense, with lockdown coverages on almost every play and constant pressure on Stancato.

The Mountain Lions would pick up the slack though, as they would score 13 unanswered points, with rushing touchdowns from both running back Jay’von Thompson and Stancato. This left the game 21-13 at half, after a botched hold to miss the point after attempt.

The Pumas weren’t quite done yet, as they intercepted Stancato again and turned that into a touchdown from Purdy following a fantastic drive where he would amass 59 rushing yards.

After a pass-heavy offense in the first half, the Pumas would flip the script on the Mountain Lions, as they would establish a very effective rushing attack in the second half.

“We just said we have to establish the line of scrimmage,” Jones said. “We had to be tougher up front and get physical with them.”

This switch proved very effective, as the Pumas would land another Purdy rushing touchdown after he rushed for 66 yards on their next scoring drive.

The Mountain Lions would keep it competitive, working through Keegan Stancato and his brother Kyler. The Keegan-to-Kyler connection was hitting early and often, as they would hook up for a 30-yard touchdown to make the game 35-19 with the Pumas still well out in front.

The Mountain Lions then had a promising drive of their own, they went 77 yards, with Keegan Stancato throwing for 71 yards. This was after having the Pumas commit a pass interference and suffering a sack, but still fighting through for the score.

After missing the two-point conversion, the two teams got scrappy, with multiple personal fouls and pass interference calls on both teams.

The Pumas would chew most of the clock up and would end up scoring a field goal to make the score 38-19.

Mountain Ridge's Thompson would cap off the scoring with a receiving touchdown, and after another missed two-point conversion attempt, the game would finish at a score 38-25. In the battle of the big cats, the Pumas would come out on top, knocking the Mountain Lions out of the playoffs.

The Pumas will play the sixth-seed Desert Vista Thunder next week.