No. 2 Pusch Ridge beat No. 5 Valley Christian 52-20 Friday night behind a stingy defense and a controlling offense line that limited the vaunted Trojan attack to minus seven yards rushing in the first half while putting up 369 of offense to take a 31-7 lead heading into the locker room.

Brysen Barrios ended the game with 197 yards rushing with two scores, including an 80-yard cut up the middle on his first carry to put the Lions up 7-0 with 9:56 left in the first quarter. The opening drive for Valley Christian looked promising with Hunter Heeringa hitting Eric Miller for 40 yards but the drive stalled and a punt led to the dash from Barrios. A fumble by the Lions gave Heeringa another shot and he hit Ethan Heinrich from 9 yards out to tie the game up 7-7 with 4:20 left in the opening quarter.

It was a struggle from there with Heeringa limited to 98 yards in the first half that included nine straight incompletions at one point. He finished the night with 190 yards (16-35) with the TD but that was offset by an interception from Bryce Jewell in the opening minutes of the third quarter to put the Trojans behind 45-7.

Ethan Tovar rushed for 81 yards on 17 carries to lead Valley Christian and Heeringa ended with minus 11 yards rushing despite two late TD runs of 1 yard and 8 yards. On the other side, Pusch Ridge junior QB Bubba Mustain ended the night with 253 yards (11-20) with 3 TDs. Mustain hit his brother Tyler Mustain on an 81-yard catch, Jack Butler on a 41-yard strike and Cody Rafacz from 43 yards out. Tyler Mustain ended with 118 yards on four catches.

Pusch Ridge is now 7-1 on the year with a game at No. 36 Palo Verde (2-6) and a home game with No. 27 Safford (3-5) to end the regular season. There should be enough power points from the Valley Christian victory to keep the Lions ranked near the top of the 3A Conference despite the drop in strength of schedule from here.

Valley Christian (6-2) is in the same predicament with a game against No. 26 Arizona Lutheran (4-3) and No. 23 Fountain Hills (5-3) remaining. The Valley Christian/Fountain Hills game looks like it might be for the 3A Metro East championship.