Thanks to a quintet of scoring drives from quarterback Kevin Yost, Glendale Mountain Ridge (6-1) methodically pulled away from Phoenix Mountain Pointe Friday night, defeating the host Pride, 39-22, on homecoming at the Ahwatukee Foothills campus’ Kiefer Stadium.
Yost threw for 235 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 75 yards and another score in leading the Mountain Lions to their fifth consecutive victory.
The matchup marked the debut of Mountain Pointe’s two-headed backfield monster – the Pride’s duo of running backs De’Andre Currie and Davon Jones. Although the Pride juniors each topped 200 yards in a single game on their own this year, Friday marked the first time the pair would take the field on the same night this season. They combined for 109 yards on 22 carries, including a 5-yard touchdown by Currie, who was back from injury after missing the last two games, in the third quarter.
“It felt OK to get back out there,” Currie said of his tender ankle, “but I still didn’t feel like myself.”
Mountain Pointe quarterback Austin Lahr wasn’t mistake-proof, but the 6-foot-1, 175-pounder did a yeoman’s job of keeping the Pride close throughout the first three frames.
Lahr ran for 51 yards, while also throwing for 151 yards in what has traditionally been known as a run-first Mountain Pointe attack.
After trailing 10-6 early in the second quarter, the Pride’s best chance of closing the scoring gap came just one minute into the third, when Currie punched the ball in to cut the lead to 23-16.
“When you have somebody on the ropes like that, you have to step on them,” Mountain Ridge coach Bobby Green said.
But Mountain Ridge would score add two touchdowns of its own in the same period to take an insurmountable 39-16 lead into the fourth.
Mountain Pointe led 6-3 at the end of the first, but gave up three Mountain Lion scoring drives in the second to trail 23-9 at halftime.
Lahr willed his way into the end zone on a 1-yard quarterback keeper for the game’s first touchdown before connecting with receiver Darius Dean for the game’s final score from 45 yards out.
But Lahr, forced to leave the pocked seemingly every other play just to avoid taking a sack, was also whistled for a safety after officials called intentional grounding in the end zone against the senior late in the third.
Mountain Pointe junior kicker John Mora rounded out the Pride scoring with a 25-yard field goal, while Mountain Ridge also scored on a field goal from kicker Johnny Chavez, two touchdown receptions by Cody Wollschlag, as well as scoring catches by Zachary Czosnyka and Brett Hager.
