It's been six years since Baboquivari last tasted victory and nine years since they had a winning season but that hasn't prevented the team from competing on every play, even when the game is all but over.

Pusch Ridge, on the other hand, is coming off of a 9-2 season and has all the tools to make sure they get back to the Division V playoffs but, even with a 48-0 win on Friday night, the team from Sells forced Pusch Ridge to play and coach against them to the end.

Pusch Ridge took an early lead after Ben Walker blocked a punt to set the Lions up at the 5-yard line and Mitch Maas scored from there to put Pusch Ridge up 7-0 with 11:04 left in the first quarter.

Pusch Ridge would go on to score 42 points in the opening quarter, forcing a running clock the rest of the way. Taylor Fitzgerald broke off a 36-yard score, Cody Cropp hit Mitch Reilly on a 44-yard scoring pass, Fitzgerald had another 36-yard run, Jason Hout had a 44-yard score and Luke Haines bolted free on a 23-yard run to complete the scoring to that point.

Colderin Ortiz hit several key passes in the game for Baboquivari with Trajan Johnson being his main target but they found it difficult to put together a long enough drive to keep the Pusch Ridge offense off the field.

Ortiz finished with 50 yards passing and Johnson pulled down 34 of those but the pair missed on several more occasions that could easily have taken both over the 100-yard mark.

"I think I played a really good game," said Johnson. "I could have had a few more catches because I was able to work free up the middle but it's been a long time since we won so we have to work harder in practice and we need to get hungry and take advantage of our opportunities."

To their credit, Pusch Ridge substituted often and respected the play of Baboquivari and the game was played even in the second half with the only score coming on a 42-yard run by Maas in the third quarter for the final 48-0 scoring margin.

Fitzgerald led Pusch Ridge with 75 yards rushing, Maas had 47, Dakota Haynes added 46, Hout had 44 and Haines had 29. In all, Pusch Ridge collected 258 yards rushing.  

Even with the many substitutions, Pusch Ridge maintained a competitive edge.

"We expect perfect execution no matter who is in there to fill in," explained Fitzgerald. "We work on the fundamentals and on the small things and we have to focus on our next game now."

Pusch Ridge (4-1) will be hosting Queen Creek San Tan Foothills (5-0) next Friday with the winner taking complete control of their section and the automatic playoff bid at stake while Baboquivari (0-5) will host Santa Cruz (2-3).

More photos at AllSportsTucson.com