The trick to beating Crismon is to stop the team – make the Rattlers punt – but it’s far easier to wrangle a real snake. Crismon beat Pusch Ridge Christian on the road Friday night 42-31 to improve to 3-0 on the year and the team did it by taking advantage of timely penalties and connecting on drive-saving plays.

Pusch Ridge (2-1) did forced a couple of turnovers that led to scores, a touchdown to put the Lions up 14-0 early on and an interception that led to a 46-yard field goal by Kamden Cummins to put the team up 31-21 at the half, but the Rattlers connected on several third down plays of over ten yards and on fourth down plays, aided by costly flags.

Pusch Ridge got off to a fast start with a kickoff return from Andrew Fontagneres to open the game. That was followed by a fumble by the Rattlers to set up a short run from Dylan Shoaff to put the Lions up 14-0 with 9:21 left in the first quarter.

The Rattlers responded with long drive, aided by a successful fourth and four run from Walker Higbee at midfield. Louis Ruesing capped off the drive with a 23-yard pass to Landon Duran to cut the lead down to 14-7 with 3:38 left in the quarter.

The Lions punted on the next drive and Higbee ripped off a 54-yard run to help set himself up for another short run to tie the game up at 14-14 with 10:51 left in the half. The Lions responded with a long drive with Shoaff turning a 54-yard run of his own to set up a 17-yard pass from MJ Buckner to Fontagneres to put the Lions back up 21-14 with 6:42 left in the second.

Ruesing turned around and he connected with Cameron Pope for 80 yards to tie the game back up 21-21 with 6:28 left. Buckner kept the next drive alive with a successful run on fourth down which led to a 31-yard scoring toss to Cummins to make it 28-21 with 2:55 left in the half.

The Lions missed on two interception attempts on the next drive from the Rattlers but the third risky pass near a Lion defender led to an interception from Braydan Nolan with 44 seconds left. The turnover set up Cummins for a 46-yard field goal to put the Lions up 31-21 at the half.

“I feel like we kind of started the game a little bit flatter than I would have liked and spotted them 14,” Crismon head coach Scott Hare said. “But the truth of the matter is, we shut them out in the second half. So once they got the ball in the second half, they never scored. I'm really proud of our defense.”

Crismon looked to turn the ball over on downs to open up the second half but a pass interference call on a fourth and eight gave the Rattlers a first down at the Lion 13 and Higbee ran the ball in on the next play to cut the lead down to 31-28 with 7:18 left in the third.

The Lions missed on another long field goal attempt and Crismon moved the ball down the field after Pusch Ridge was thrown for back-to-back personal foul penalties. The extra 30 yards helped set up a 34-yard run from Higbee to give the Rattlers their first lead of the game at 35-31 with 56 seconds left in the third.

The Lions gave the ball back on downs and the Rattlers connected on a third and 12 play on a wide open 22-yard pass from Ruesing to Pope to keep the deciding drive alive. Ruesing hit Duran from 12 yards out later in the drive to put the team up 42-31 with 2:41 left in the game.

“I'm just proud of the fact that right now our program is moving in a direction where we're just going to play for 48 minutes,” Hare added. “That's not what we were a year ago. We let the scoreboard dictate our mentality. I feel very confident. I think we've only punted twice in the whole season so far in three games, so I like what we're doing. I like what we're doing on both sides of the ball.”

Higbee rushed for 166 yards on 19 carries and three scores, Ruesing had 192 yards passing with three TDs and Pope pulled in 137 yards receiving. Shoaff had 103 yards rushing with a score, Buckner had 166 yards passing with a TD and Fontagneres had 64 yards receiving with a TD.

Pusch Ridge travels to play at Catalina Foothills (0-2) next Thursday and Crismon hosts Blue Ridge (1-2) on Friday.