The Perry Pumas bested the Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions 38-25, in the first round of the 6A conference playoffs Nov. 8.

This three-seed versus 14-seed matchup was nothing short of a competitive game all the way throughout

The Mountain Lions ended up with a 5-5 record in the regular season. This was leaps and bounds from the prior seasons, where they had an 18-game losing streak.

First-yeat coach Doug Madoski was able to initiate the turnaround. Many people might think he is the reason, but he thinks otherwise.

“The biggest thing is the understanding that you never quit,” Madoski said. “These are the same guys who went on and 18 game losing streak.”

Perry on the other hand is a team that made it to the state finals each of the past two seasons. They were gunning for the inaugural open division, but they ended up 6-4 in the regular season and went to the 6A playoffs.

The Mountain Lions began by driving down the field into the red zone. On second down, quarterback Keegan Stancato threw an interception to defensive back Kobe Rome, who returned it 97 yards in the other direction for a touchdown. This would set the Pumas ahead 7-0.

“That was huge,” Perry coach Preston Jones said about the play. “The reason we had an eight-point lead at half time was because of Kobe.”

This interception would jump start the Pumas offense. The home team capped it off with an impressive scramble and throw from Perry quarterback Chubba Purdy to receiver Cade Berger for a 35-yard touchdown.

“Nothing was open at first,” Purdy said. “I was getting ready to take off to the right of the pocket and then I saw [Berger] down there and I just stepped into my pass and threw it to him.”

The air strike wouldn’t stop there as another bomb was dropped by Purdy, but this time to receiver Jorden Young. This bomb was double the length of the first touchdown, totaling 75 yards.

During all this scoring the Mountain Lions could not find their stride where four consecutive drives in the first half went as follows; interception, punt, punt, punt. These offensive struggles were mainly due to the Pumas stellar defense, with lockdown coverages on almost every play and constant pressure on Stancato.

The Mountain Lions would pick up the slack though, as they scored 13 unanswered points with rushing touchdowns from both running back Jay’von Thompson and Stancato leaving the game 21-13 at half after a botched hold to miss the point after attempt.

The Pumas weren’t quite done yet as they intercepted Stancato again and turned that into a touchdown from Purdy following a fantastic drive where he would amass 59 rushing yards.

After a pass heavy offense in the first half, the Pumas would flip the script on the Mountain Lions, as they would establish a very effective rushing attack in the second half.

“We just said we have to establish the line of scrimmage,” Jones said. “We had to be tougher up front and get physical with them.”

This switch proved very effective as the Pumas would land another Purdy rushing touchdown. he rushed for 66 yards on that scoring drive.

Mountain Ridge kept it competitive, working through Keegan Stancato and his brother Kyler. The Keegan to Kyler connection was hitting early and often as they would hook up for a 30-yard touchdown to make the game 35-19 with the Pumas still well out in front.

This was a promising drive for the Mountain Lions as they went 77 yards on the drive with Keegan Stancato throwing for 71 yards. This was after having the Pumas commit a pass interference and suffering a sack, but still fighting through for the score.

After missing the two-point conversion, the two teams got scrappy, with multiple personal fouls and pass interference calls .

The Pumas would chew most of the clock up and would end up scoring a field goal making the score 38-19.

Thompson capped off the scoring with a receiving touchdown.

Editor's Note: Joseph McHugh is a student at the Cronkite school at ASU