Blue Ridge freshman quarterback P.J. London took the snap and looked to his left. He saw a receiver in the flat, turned and let it fly.

Thomas Poe was waiting the whole time.

The Northwest Christian sophomore defensive back saw the receiver in the flat, jumped his route and ran the 20 yards that separated him from the end zone to break a scoreless first-quarter tie.

He didn’t look back, and neither did the Crusaders in a 35-0 win in a Class 3A non-region game at Northwest Christian.

“When Poe jumped in front of that flat route and took it, it kind of gave the entire team a jolt,” coach David Inness said. “We said, ‘Alright, let’s play.’”

Poe’s interception came with the game scoreless and 1:11 as he jumped in front of a crossing route.

Inness said the key defensively for the Crusaders was applying pressure to London, the Yellow Jackets’ freshman quarterback, and shutting down Blue Ridge’s running game.

“It all starts up front, the defensive line did really good,” Poe said. “They were pressuring the quarterback so much that I was able to get those picks.”

Poe said the defense went into the game with a physical mentality and wanted to force its opponent to battle on every play.

“We were just trying to hammer them,” Poe said. “We heard they were going to come physical. We said we’re just going to hit them as hard as we can.”

Poe led the team on defense, grabbing another interception to add to his game-changing pick six.

The junior also showcased his skills on offense, racking up 56 total yards in the game including a 5-yard touchdown run and a 25-yard kickoff return to start the second half for the Crusaders.

After Poe’s jumpstart interception return, senior quarterback Jarin Davis took charge as he led the offense to three touchdowns in the second quarter which resulted in a 28-0 lead at halftime.

Davis completed eight of his 14 passing attempts with 77 yards and two touchdowns before being pulled at halftime for sophomore quarterback Jonathan Metzger.

Coming out of the half, Northwest Christian (3-0) kept the ball on the ground, only throwing seven passes in the second half.

However, with 2:01 left in the third quarter Metzger led the Crusaders 46 yards down the field for a touchdown, increasing their lead to 35-0.

Metzger finished the half 5-for-7 with 31 passing yards, accounting for more than half of the Crusaders second-half total offense.

The Crusaders finished the game with 185 yards of total offense and held the Yellow Jackets (2-2) to 95 yards.

Looking ahead to next week, the Crusaders will have their hands full with the defending Class 3A champion American Leadership Academy of Queen Creek coming to their home field.

Inness acknowledged that next week will be a tough matchup for the Crusaders but felt that his team had a shot not only next week, but a few months down the road.

“We don’t have any superstars on this team,” Inness said. “But we have a bunch of guys that can play, and I think by the end of the season we are going to be a handful.”