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Prairie Ridge does it all in win over Burlington Central

Scoring three touchdowns rushing, two passing, two on special teams and one on defense, multifaceted Prairie Ridge cruised past undermanned Burlington Central 56-16 in Fox Valley Conference action at PR Stadium in Crystal Lake Friday night.

PR, which moves to 6-1 overall and 6-1 in the FVC, qualified for the IHSA playoffs.

"They (PR) are an awesome team that is certainly state championship caliber," said Burlington Central coach Brian Melvin. "They beat us bad in all phases of the game. Give them credit. That's on the coaching staff. We have to do a better job as coaches getting our kids ready to play. Our kids never quit. They played hard for four quarters."

The Wolves set the tone on special teams. Sam Ripple blocked a punt and recovered the ball in the end zone for the first score of the game with 9:55 left in the first quarter.

"That block and touchdown really set the tone for us," said PR coach Chris Schremp. "We have come up with some big plays on special teams the last three weeks. It is a crucial part of the game."

Taidhgin Trost was the offensive standout for the Wolves with 3 touchdowns. Trost caught TD passes of 13 and 49 yards from Connor Lydon and rambled 53 yards for a score. Hard running fullback Carter Evans scored on a 40-yard run and ran back a kickoff 60 yards for a score.

Lydon, who engineered the PR offense almost flawlessly, scored on a 12-yard run.

The Wolves, who led 49-0 at halftime, got a defensive touchdown from Tyler Crawford who recovered a fumble in the end zone while Marko Mancini intercepted a pass.

"We have really played well in three phases of the game the last three weeks," said Schremp. "We are coming up big play after big play on offense, defense and special teams. We are really executing. I am happy with the way we are playing going into the Cary (Cary-Grove) game next week."

Central (3-4, 3-4), which was hindered by 4 lost fumbles and an interception, scored twice in the second half, Gavin Sarvis, who had 46 yards rushing, scored on a 1-yard run while Mark Ganziano hooked up with Jake Lenschow for a 20-yard TD pass.

Lenschow ran for 93 on 13 carries which included a 53-yard run.

"We know we end the season playing two more great teams in Huntley and Cary-Grove," said Melvin. "We know we have to play better and prepare better, We eventually want to get to the caliber of Prairie Ridge, Huntley and Cary-Grove."

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