No. 1 Benjamin Franklin beat No. 5 Pusch Ridge 35-14 on the road Friday night to clinch the first undefeated regular season in program history at 10-0 and the Chargers pulled it off against a program that knocked the team out of the playoffs in the semifinal round twice, including last year when the Chargers were the highest seed in the 3A Conference.

No. 1 Pusch Ridge beat No. 4 Benjamin Franklin 47-7 in the semifinal round in 2017 but the Lions lost the championship game that year and then No. 4 Pusch Ridge beat No. 1 Benjamin Franklin 24-13 in the semifinal round last year before going on to upset No. 2 ALA-West Foothills 26-7 to win the state title. The Chargers made it to 2019 state championship game where the team lost to ALA-Queen Creek 24-6. Pusch Ridge won it all in 2015 and 2024.

In the game Friday night, Gavin Wyler hit Ty Sather for 66 yards to put the Chargers up 7-0 with 9:12 left in the first quarter but the Lions had a chance to tie in early after a bad snap on a punt from the Chargers but Talan Speir came up with an interception in the end zone on the next play to erase that opportunity.

Race Pinneo connected with Levi Adcock with 2:06 left in the half to tie the game up at 7-7 but Speir caught another scoring pass to put Benjamin Franklin back up 14-7 with 4:07 left in the third. The game was far from over but the momentum shifted to the Chargers the rest of the way after a failed fourth-down play gave the Chargers a short field and Landon Stetka ran in from close to make it 21-7 with 1:44 left in the third. That score turned out to be a difficult one to overcome and Stetka scored again to make it 28-7 with 7:04 left.

The Chargers cashed in on an onside kick after the touchdown and Carson Steka scored to make it 35-7 with 4:12 left. Dominic Painter caught a TD pass with 228 seconds left for the 35-14 final.

The Chargers retained the top ranking and the team will host No. 16 Dysart in the first round next Friday and No. 5 Pusch Ridge will host No. 12 Page. The programs can meet again in the semifinal round.

THE PLAYS