David Ricuito is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover the Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions for AZPreps365.com

Mountain Ridge (3-2) picked up their second straight win by defeating North at home, 45-6, on Friday.

"It was a good win," Mountain Ridge head coach Doug Madoski said. "We knew if we played the way we needed to that we could be successful." 

After falling down 6-0 early after an interception, the Mountain Lions did not look back, putting up 45 unanswered points.

They were led by quarterback Brendan Anderson, who, despite an early interception, bounced back by throwing four touchdowns and rushing for a fifth.

"In the first half, we were clicking on all cylinders," Anderson said. "In the second half, we got a little sloppy, but we are going to clean that up."

Anderson talked about how he knew the early interception was a "dumb mistake" and he did not let it faze him from that point on.

Anderson was spreading the ball all across the field, throwing touchdowns to receivers Ryland Sands, Terrance Hall and two to Nicklaus Cardiff. There were chunk plays after chunk plays for the Mountain Lion offense.

Their defense also deserves a lot of credit for the win, suffocating the Mustangs all game long after their first touchdown. The defensive line was creating a lot of pressure and brought home two sacks from Saxon Davison and Christian Aguilar.

They stopped them on two turnovers on downs, and had a pick-six from Rolando Martinez.

Despite the big score difference, Madoski stressed how important it is for them to keep their focus while up big.

"When you jump up on a team like that, it does not necessarily mean that you can’t lose that focus and lose the little things, like making mistakes, penalties, things that you shouldn’t be doing," Madoski said.

"When you get into the bigger games and the games that are closer, those are going to be the deciding factors and a lot of times you will come out unsuccessful."

The Mountain Lions were coming off of a bye week but did not look like they had any rust they needed to knock off.

Madoski talked about how the bye week came at a good time for them and how one of the most important things for them is taking it one week at a time. Not letting a bad loss or even a big win affect how they approach their next game is a priority for them.

"I don't even subscribe to the 24-hour rule," Madoski said. "We get done with a game and we did what we hoped to do, and now we have to figure out how to get the next one."

The Mountain Lions will have a tough contest on the road next week against Boulder Creek High School (4-1) as they look to improve to 4-2 on the season.