Connor Manning is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover 6A Playoffs for AZPreps365.com.

GILBERT - The Williams Field Black Hawks clawed through the Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions on their home field by a score of 52-17 on Friday in a 6A state quarterfinal contest. 

Above the press box at Williams Field's field read the word “DOMINATE.” That’s exactly what the Black Hawks did, although it took them a while to soar.

After a three-and-out opening possession for Williams Field, Mountain Ridge drove the ball down the field to take a 3-0 lead on a 25-yard field goal by Braedon Lacombe. The Hawks moved right down the field and Aziya Jamison burst through the Mountain Lion defense for a touchdown and a 7-3 Hawk lead late in the first quarter.

Jamison finished the night with six catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns.

In the second quarter, quarterback Cj Tiller put the Hawks on his back and took over the game. Following a Moutanin Ridge punt, Tiller dropped back to pass on the first play of the drive and unloaded a bomb to Jamison down the right sideline for 69 yards to increase the lead to 14-3.

On the next play from scrimmage, a Mountain Ridge running back fumbled the ball inside his own 20. Mark Tripathi of the Black Hawks scooped the ball up and returned it to paydirt to increase Williams Field's lead to 21-3.

Mountain Ridge scored soon after on a 26-yard pass from Brendan Anderson to Terrance Hall to bring the Mountain Lions to within 21-10. The Hawks answered back with another long-shot pass. Tiller, spreading the wealth around, heaved a deep ball into heavy man-coverage and it miraculously found Lasjawn Hunter in the endzone. The dejected reactions from the Mountain Lion secondary spoke a thousand words. 

Things would go from bad to worse for Mountain Ridge as the Black Hawks connected on two more passing touchdowns in the final 90 seconds before halftime for a staggering 42-10 halftime lead. Tiller’s final numbers from his monster night included 15 of 22 completions for 293 yards and five touchdowns. 

“I think I had to wake up a little bit,” Tiller said after his team’s slow first quarter. “I was fighting something in my stomach so it was just me getting over it and the guys just trusting me to put the ball where they need it.” 

Mountain Ridge was forced to rely on its passing game all night long. The run game failed to create chunks of yardage, accumulating only 67 total yards on 17 carries. Anderson completed 19 of 41 passes for 323 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He didn’t get a lot of help from his receivers, who dropped plenty of catchable balls. The Black Hawk defensive line forced Anderson out of the pocket often as well, forcing him to make inaccurate throws on the run. The Mountain Lions also just couldn’t stay on the field, only converting four of 12 third downs. 

No. 6 Williams Field travels to Chaparral next Friday to engage in aerial warfare with the second-seeded Firebirds in the 6A Semifinals at 7p.m.