Finn Garrison is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Notre Dame Prep for AZpreps365.

Running back Andrew Vines for the Notre Dame Prep Saints continued his dominance in the run game where he finished with 101 rushing yards on 13 carries and three touchdowns to help lead the Saints to a 42-0 win over the South Mountain Jaguars.

Notre Dame Prep (3-2) scored early in the first quarter as Vines ran into the end zone for a touchdown to lead South Mountain (2-3) 7-0 with 8:13 remaining in the first quarter.

After forcing two consecutive three-and-outs on South Mountain, Notre Dame Prep received the ball and continued to run their offense through Vines and he ran for a 31-yard touchdown to take a 14-0 lead over South Mountain to end the first quarter.

To start the second quarter, Notre Dame Prep’s defense forced South Mountain’s offense to another three-and-out, punt returner Gavin Smith set up Notre Dame Prep’s offense in the red zone with a 30-yard punt return. Vines continued his scoring outburst with a 6-yard rushing touchdown to extend the Saints’ lead to 21-0.

When discussing his and his offensive line’s performance, Vines said, “The linemen absolutely split the Red Sea that game, so if you didn’t get 101 yards it would have been shocking. They made it so easy for me … they did a great job.”

With 5:51 left before halftime, quarterback Braden Wells threw a touchdown pass to wide receiver Brock Narveson to take a 28-0 lead. 

Once Notre Dame Prep got the ball back with 3:30 left by forcing a punt, Wells kept the ball and used his legs to get a 34-yard rushing touchdown to put Notre Dame Prep’s lead over South Mountain to 35-0 to end the half.

Notre Dame Prep received the ball to start the second half where they substituted starting quarterback Wells for quarterback Noah Trigueros. 

After marching down to the inside of South Mountain’s 10-yard line, Vines fumbled the ball, which put South Mountain’s offense backed up against their goal line.

After a quick three-and-out, Notre Dame Prep received the punt and with 4 minutes left in the third quarter, Trigueros threw his first and only touchdown pass of the game to wide receiver Hudson Stych to extend their lead over South Mountain 42-0.

Just when South Mountain started to find a rhythm on the offensive side of the ball, their hopes of scoring any points late in the fourth quarter were diminished when defensive back Jaden Scarpone intercepted the ball with 1:33 left to play.

Notre Dame Prep’s defense entered this game having forced five turnovers, when discussing the defense’s emphasis on forcing turnovers, defensive end Ben Robertson said, “Coach Smith is really big on turnovers, and one of his main goals every game is to score on defense, so turnovers are big. Let’s say we get an interception, we work on turning our heads and getting a block, so turnovers are definitely a huge part of how we want to run our defense.”

Overall, Notre Dame Prep played well on both sides of the ball with the offense scoring six touchdowns while the defense didn’t give up any points and limited South Mountain’s offense to only three first downs in the entire game.

“We just have to take it one game at a time, just congratulate the team, make sure we’re all good to go, make sure we stay healthy, and then we need to play and do our job next week because the challenge is even greater,” said defensive coordinator Nick Smith on his message to the team after back-to-back blowout wins.

The Saints host their next game at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 against Campo Verde.