Sports360AZ
The Blue Ridge football team should name this season “The Run for 15,” meaning their 15th state championship in school history.
The Yellow Jackets started off their title defense with a bang, knocking off the Moapa Valley Pirates 23-14 on Saturday afternoon in the 7th annual Sollenberger Classic, which was held at University of Phoenix Stadium.
Quarterback Skyler Hill hooked up with wide receiver Ben Watson on a 70-yard scoring play to get the Yellow Jackets on the board first, and they never looked back.
Hill went 5-of-10 for 107 yards passing, and the lone touchdown pass to Watson.
Blue Ridge had 40 run plays to the 10 passes by Hill, which seems like a huge imbalance, but it worked, as they gained 176 yards on the ground.
Both defenses were grit tough throughout, but Blue Ridge’s defense clamped down harder when they needed a stop. The Yellow Jackets gave up 191 yards of offense to the Pirates.
Despite the win, head coach Paul Moro saw quite a few things that he and his team need to straighten out before their next game.
“Everything,” Moro said. “Offensively, defensively, we made tons of mistakes.”
Moro attributes his team’s play, or lack thereof, to not getting a jump on extra practice time.
“We were short on practice, and it was pretty obvious,” Moro said.
Moro makes it quite plain as to how the Yellow Jackets can get to the top of the mountain again at the end of the season.
“Just improve and get healthy,” Moro said. “We have lots of kids that aren’t healthy, so we just get healthy and improve.”
