Chaparral blowout of Perry sets up semifinal matchup with Centennial
Friday, November 11, 2011 12:00 am | Updated: 12:53 am, Fri Nov 11, 2011.
By Anthony Martinez, Tribune
Chaparral continued to fire on all cylinders as it dominated No. 8 Perry for a 51-7 victory in the Division II state quarterfinals Thursday night at Chaparral.
The Firebirds will now take its high-powered offense and stout defense to the Division II semifinals where they will take on No. 5 Peoria Centennial at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18 at North Canyon High School.
"It's two great programs," Chaparral coach Charlie Ragle said of Centennial. "We have the utmost respect for them, a perennial powerhouse, and these guys know we're going to have our work cut for us to go in there and play with them."
This week, however, the No. 1 Firebirds (12-1) didn't do much wrong as they got off to a fast start and took control on both sides of the ball.
"That's as close as you can get (to everything going as planned)," Ragle said.
The Firebirds defense forced three straight 3-and-outs and allowed the Pumas (9-3) just one play for positive yardage on their first three drives.
"They're big up front, they're physical, they're well-coached and they're disciplined," Perry coach Preston Jones said of the Firebirds.
Chaparral swarmed to receivers which forced incompletions and applied a lot of pressure on Perry's dual-threat quarterback Josh Uhlorn. The rest of the Pumas backfield and running game quickly became a nonfactor.
"The one thing we try to pride ourselves the last five years we've been here is we want to play good defense," Ragle said. "We sent a message to our kids all week long that we're a good football team and we're a good defensive football team and we wanted to come out here and show that."
The Firebirds sacked Uhlorn twice, with Jarvis Lewis and Dylan Cozens each putting Uhlorn on his back once.
With the defense providing great field position to start drives, the Chaparral offense put on a show with scores in its first six drives before failing to score on the last drive before halftime.
"That's how the game should be played when you can set the field position up like that and the offense can capitalize on that then the outcome can look like this," Ragle said.
Brewer made it looked easy and exposed Perry's secondary for big passing plays.
Firebirds quarterback Connor Brewer finished the game completing 8-of-11 passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for a touchdown. Brewer came out of the game after the Firebirds scored on their first drive of the third quarter.
"They played off and they bit so we did a couple of double moves and mixed it up," Brewer said.
The Chaparral running game also showed what a well-oiled machine it has been lately by racking up 260 yards and averaging 8.39 yards per carry.
Lucas Petrullo, who is close to full strength after missing most of the season with a foot injury, led the attack with 104 yards and two touchdowns.
Davonte Neal also did his usual damage by rushing for 62 yards and a touchdown, and four catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.
The 44-point loss marked a tough end for Perry after seeing its offense average 58 points during its seven-game winning streak.
"I told them there's only one team that ends the season happy," Jones said. "Our kids had a good year and made the final eight so they can hang their heads high."
Posted by Jodi Murphy
Nov 11, 2011
Last Updated:
Nov 19, 2011
