Pusch Ridge outlasted Safford 40-17 to improve to 2-1 on the year and it took a perfect night from a backup quarterback trying to make his own identity on a championship team to get it done.

You never know what perfection looks like until you see it with your own eyes and the fans saw it Friday night when Pusch Ridge QB Christian Fetsis took the field. Fetsis finished with 360 yards passing on 14 completions out of 14 attempts with one touchdown. No drops, no interceptions and no incompletions for the junior who only threw seven passes last year.

Fetsis only threw seven passes because the Lions already had Cody Cropp under center. Cropp finished with 1,192 yards passing and led his team to a 13-1 record and a state championship. The only loss Cropp suffered was an opening week setback at Benson. Coincidently, a loss is how Pusch Ridge began this year.

“We had a slow start this year but we are trying to build on our identity from last year,” Fetsis said. “We are starting to find our groove.”

A 14-10 loss at American Leadership Academy was followed by a 22-12 win against Walden Grove at home last Friday. The team will face Sahuarita next but games at power-programs Catalina Foothills and Sabino still remain. Those games will be difficult but the Lions can celebrate what they accomplished against Safford.

Safford came in with a 2-1 record with a narrow 20-14 loss to Thatcher last week. It was easy to pick the Bulldogs as the favorites coming in but a crucial loss of downs to open the second half proved too much to overcome.

Pusch Ridge led 18-10 at the half but Safford took the opening drive of the second half all the way down to the 7-yard line before giving the ball back on downs. The Bulldogs missed their shot but not Fetsis.

Faced with a third down at his own 17, Fetsis unleashed a missile to Edwin Lovett and Lovett took it down to the Lion’s 15. 68 yards in a flash. A couple of penalties moved Pusch Ridge back to the 25 but Fetsis went back to Lovett to set up a first-and-goal at the 2-yard line and Mitchell Maas ran it in from there.

Lovett finished with 166 yards receiving and he collected 91 yards on the back-breaking drive alone. He also caught the 2-point conversion to make it 26-10.

The Bulldogs still showed some life on the next drive and Manuel Aparicio hit Cameron Abril for 84 yards to make it 26-17 with 4:25 left in the third. But that was it. Pusch Ridge went on to score two more touchdowns for the 40-17 final.

Aparicio finished with 137 yards passing and 110 yards rushing. That kind of offense will usually get a team a victory but not when your opposition can’t miss. Still, there were plenty of chances.

The Lions fumbled away their first possession but Safford was forced to punt. The result was a scoring drive by Pusch Ridge with Dakota Haynes scoring from three yards out to make it 6-0. The extra point was misplayed and that played big in how the rest of the half worked out.

Safford punted again but the Bulldog defense forced the ball back on downs after Pusch Ridge made it all the way down to the 1-yard line. The Bulldogs punted again and Fetsis made them pay with a 53-yard strike to Matthew McLeod to make it 12-0.

The Lions went for a 2-point conversion but it failed. Aparicio broke free for 35 yards on the next drive to cut the lead down to 12-7. Maas ran another TD in from short distance but another 2-point conversion failed and Pusch Ridge only led 18-7 with 56 seconds left in the first half.

Safford took advantage of a personal foul and Riley DeSpain hit on a 25-yard field goal as time expired to make it 18-10.

Besides the 166 yards receiving by Lovett, McLeod finished with 76 yards receiving with a TD and 53 yards rushing with a TD. Blake Reilly added 73 yards rushing and Maas rushed for 40 yards and two TDs to go along with 45 yards receiving. Haynes picked up two rushing TDs on 48 yards.

In all, Pusch Ridge collected 550 total yards while Safford put up a very impressive 360 with Abril pulling down 120 yards receiving.

“This is my first season starting so I’m pretty excited on the outcome,” Fetsis added. “We started to pull away because of my receivers and our line. The coaches also made some great calls.”

Safford will have another difficult game next Friday with Snowflake (4-0) coming to town next Friday. Snowflake defeated Thatcher 13-12 to remain undefeated.