Pusch Ridge QB Christian Fetsis. (AZPreps365.com)

 

Christian Fetsis took a knee with only a few seconds remaining in the Lions 44-7 victory over Sabino Friday and, as it turns out, it was one of only three negative plays on the night from the senior quarterback.

Fetsis finished the night with 141 yards passing with a touchdown and 100 yards rushing on 13 attempts and he found himself in the end zone surrounded by his teammates on three of those attempts. It was his night.

“It was important for us to get out to a fast start like we did but I think the turning point came on the fumble we recovered when we were barely up and they were driving,” Fetsis explained.

The “we” in that statement was Fetsis. He recovered the fumble from his DB position and the Lions responded with 32 straight points from that moment.

Fetsis engineered a 14-play scoring drive to start the game off and he capped the drive off with a five-yard run to put the Lions up 6-0 with the kick failing but the Sabercats responded quickly with Alex Bell hitting Bennett Nottingham from six yards out to put Sabino up 7-6 with 2:39 left in the first.

Fetsis scored again in the opening moments of the second quarter to put Pusch Ridge up 12-7 and he fell on a Sabercat fumble seven seconds later to take control of the game for good. Dakota Haynes ran the ball in from six yards out with 8:44 left in the half to put Pusch Ridge up 18-7 and Fetsis hit Haynes on a 48-yard pass to extend the lead to 24-7 at the half.

“We are known for our running obviously,” Fetsis added. “But coach wanted us to score as many points as we could tonight. I would say our line won the battle tonight.”

Mitch Mass put Pusch Ridge up 30-7 on a two-yard run and Fetsis put the Lions up 38-7 on another scoring run and a 2-point conversion with 22.9 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Lions finished with 409 yards of offense, which is right at their average per game, but the Sabercats were limited to 141, or about 250 below their average. It was a very difficult night for the Sabercats.

“We need to take control of what we can control,” Sabino head coach Ryan McBrayer said. “Nothing went right for us but our goal is the playoffs. We have three games left and our players know the end game.”

Maas finished with 67 yards rushing and Ryan Gracia added 64 for Pusch Ridge. Haynes collected 78 yards receiving and Turner Harris had 56. Bell collected 153 yards passing for Sabino and Luke Moran had 87 yards receiving. Diego Armijo had an interception for Sabino and Alec Allen recovered a fumble for Pusch Ridge.

Pusch Ridge improved to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in region play while Sabino moved to 5-2 and 3-1 in the 3A South Region. The top two teams will earn an automatic berth to the 3A state playoffs and Pusch Ridge can clinch one of those spots next week.

Pusch Ridge hosts Tanque Verde (2-6, 2-2) and Sabino will travel to play Sahuarita (2-5, 0-3). Empire (4-3, 2-1) needs to win out and force what would amount a play-in game at Sabino to end the regular season on Oct. 27.

In 6A action, Tucson (3-4, 1-0) beat Sunnyside 31-30 in overtime. The Blue Devils fell to 1-6 and 0-1 and out of playoff contention under the playoff rules for the 6A Southern Region. The Badgers have two wins in conference play which would be the tie breaker if Rincon/UHS (3-4, 0-0) loses to Sunnyside and beats Tucson. 

If Rincon beats Sunnyside next week then the winner of the Tucson/Rincon game will be the Tucson Sub-Region representative against the winner of the Yuma Sub-Region. The winner of that game will get the automatic playoff berth.

Nothing was decided in 5A action form Southern Arizona but about half the teams will be mathematically eliminated next week.

In 4A action Pueblo (5-2, 1-0) beat Canyon del Oro 22-17. The Dorados fell to (3-4, 0-1). The Warriors should go on to win the Gila Region but things got more difficult for Canyon del Oro with Walden Grove, Nogales and Salpointe waiting for them in the Kino Region.

In 2A action, Willcox (4-3, 2-0) knocked off San Manuel 46-44 in double overtime. The Miners (6-2, 2-1) will be watching the Santa Cruz (6-0, 20) at Willcox game very closely next week.

Finally, in 1A action, Valley Union (5-2, 3-0) will host Trivium Prep (6-1, 3-0) for the 1A South championship.