Northwest Christian got off to a quick start to capture their sixth victory of the season.

The Crusaders beat the River Valley Dust Devils 55-0 on Senior Night at Northwest Christian High School on Friday.

Crusaders head coach David Inness said the team's mindset this whole week was getting off to that fast start.

“Our goal this week was to come out and start fast and see how they react, and we started really fast,” he said. “We wanted to get Metzger going and then the defense has been great all year and we just keep getting better.”

Northwest quarterbacks Jonathan Metzger and Easton Meier combined for three touchdowns in the win.

Inness said they have been sending both quarterbacks out there because they are both good at different aspects of the game.

“We have been playing both the last couple weeks because they give you two different options,” he said. “Metzger can really throw it and Easton is the run guy, he can throw it but he loves to run that inside zone. We are happy with both of them, we need both.”

At the six-minute mark in the first quarter, Northwest Christian’s Aren Van Hofwegen intercepted a pass which helped Northwest get good field position to score their third touchdown of the quarter.

Inness said the Crusaders defense is a close group of great players.

“Aren had an incredible pick,” he said. “Our defense is an older group who have played together for a long time and are very sound in their technique and guys have really stepped up. That defense is fun.”

Van Hofwegen said the defense has been trying to get turnovers and they did a great job as a unit to lead up to that interception.

“We had a tough week last week against Wickenburg and we were looking to get some turnovers on defense because we haven’t had those in a while,” he said. “Just defense putting rush on the quarterback and it just put me in the place to pick it.”

The win on Friday helped Northwest Christian improve their win streak to five games.

Hofwegen said they talked about that this week and are just going to keep playing consistently and work hard down the stretch.

“Just being intentional with our reps and over these last few games,” he said. “We are going to keep working hard because we know playoffs are coming and stay focused on that.”

Senior Dustin Inness, who plays both sides of the ball, scored two touchdowns and recorded an interception in the win.

Inness said turnovers are big because of the ability to get good field position to score or pin the opposing team deep in their own territory.

“Quick change is good and it is really nice when you can start on their half of the field because we usually score, and if we don’t then they get pinned back,” he said. “Turnovers are huge and if you win the turnover battle you usually win the game.”

Dustin said the game was emotional because it was senior night, but they were excited about getting out there and playing.

“Senior Night is weird because you only get one but we were hyped because it is a pretty emotional game for our seniors,” he said. “The juniors were just playing for us and it is just crazy to think we are seniors but we have a few more and we just have to finish out the regular season.

River Valley head coach Jonathan Clark summed up the team’s play in a simple statement.

“We need to work our butts off,” he said. “If we want to play with the best we have to get back out there and really work hard.”