Yuma Catholic quarterback Richard Stallworth has piled up more prolific passing-yardage stats in a game this season, but his five touchdown passes sufficed Saturday night to help the Shamrocks reach the 3A championship game.

Stallworth tossed three TD passes to Devon Black and two to Austin Rush as Yuma Catholic topped Pusch Ridge, 36-20, in a semifinal game at Coronado High School. Stallworth's 234 yards was a season-low, part of nearly 3,800 yards in 10 games with 49 TDs for the year.

Top-seed Yuma Catholic takes its 10-0 record to next Saturday's championship game against #2 Snowflake. Game time is 6 p.m. again at Coronado High. Pusch Ridge finished 8-2 with both defeats to Yuma Catholic. Yuma Catholic is back in the title game after missing last yaer and finishing runner-up in 2018 to Northwest Christian. The Shamrocks last title - among many the last decade-plus was in 2014.

"We had some big plays, thought we had a good offensive plan and it worked out for us," Yuma Catholic coach Rhett Stallworth said. "We knew our defense had to tackle well and they did most of the time."

Richard Stallworth, coach Rhett Stallworth's son, completed 13 of 20 passes for 234 yards with no interceptions. The 234 yards was actually a season-low for the the sophomore, who has thrown for more than 3,800 yards and 49 TDs.

Yuma Catholic wasted little time in taking the lead it owned the entire night. A 55-yard strike to Black three minutes into play put the Shamrocks up 7-0. The teams traded field goals the rest of the quarter. Pusch Ridge settled for a second field goal with 7:03 to play before halftime to pull within 10-6. Pusch Ridge quarterback Hayden Hallett connected on kicks of  37 and 32 yards. Feeling the heat, Yuma Catholic drove 62 yards in three minutes to extend its lead to 17-6, which was the halftime margin. Black again found the end zone taking a 2-yard pass from Stallworth for the score. Black also had a 26-yard rush as part of the drive.

The second half opened with a bang for Pusch Ridge. Sophomore Bryce Jewell took a short kickoff at his 21 and tore up the middle for a 79-yard TD return pulling the Lions within 17-13 seconds into the half. 

Stallworth saw and responded. He latched on to Rush completing 4 of 4 passes - three to Rush - on the next drive that ended with a 10-yard score to Rush bumping the lead to 23-13. 

Pusch Ridge - undaunted - put together a seven-minute drive capped by a 6-yard scoring run by Evan Lovett. The score sliced another point off the margin at 23-20 with 2:14 left in the third.

Darned if Stallworth wasn't impatient about that. After a pass interference penalty picked up 15 yards to midfield, Yuma Catholic scored on the next play. It was a Stallworth 50-yard TD toss to Rush. 

Pusch Ridge had no more responses in the fourth quarter. The Lions missed a 28-yard field goal that could have pulled them within 30-23 with 10 minutes to play. They used up five minutes after forcing a punt, but turned the ball over on downs with four minutes left at their 33. Stallworth capped the night with a short field and 16-yard TD to Black for the final points.

All three of Black's receptions were for TDs - totaling 82 yards. He also rushed 12 times for 58 yards. Rush had seven receptions for 98 yards.  Total yardage for the game was nearly even (322 for Pusch Ridge and 313 for Yuma Catholic) and time of possession swayed heavily to Pusch Ridge (31 minutes to 17). The scoreboard did not concur with the Lions having an edge. 

Next week's title game, with Snowflake bringing a strong run game, won't be anything new to the Shamrocks.

"We've played teams like that before," Rhett Stallworth said. "And we beat them. They are a lot bigger than us, but our kids go to the weightroom, too. We'll come out and figh. Do all we can to win another state title."