For the first four weeks of the football season, the PRC Blue Devils knocked on the door to their first victory.
On Friday at Bay High, the Blue Devils decisively kicked that door down.

PRC used an explosive offense and an opportunistic defense to pull away from the Tigers, 56-35, and break a 17-game losing streak which dated back to the 2022 season.

The win also marked the first head coaching victory at PRC for John Feaster, a former PRC assistant who spent the last seven years as the head coach at Stone.

“All the glory goes to God,” Feaster said. “Coming into this game, we were just a few plays away from being 3-1, but the kids kept believing, kept buying in. Hopefully, when you have a win like this, it shows them what we are capable of, and that buy-in continues.”

Junior quarterback Qorday Russell played a part in all eight PRC touchdowns, running for four scores and throwing for the others. Russell and Titus Feaster alternated at quarterback, with the tandem combining for 284 passing yards. Their favorite target was sophomore Kendall Morrison, who had 150 receiving yards, including three touchdowns, and set up PRC numerous times with good field position after long kick returns.

Russell also led all rushers with 160 yards on 18 carries. Jaylen Antoine led Bay with 127 rushing yards on 21 attempts.

“It all came together for us,” Russell said. “We wanted to execute perfectly, to execute how the coaches teach us to execute. We’ve been taught to trust in the process if we want to get better, and I thought that showed on Friday.”

The Devils led, 28-21, at the half, and began to pull away at the start of the third quarter. The Tigers (1-4) fumbled away the second-half kickoff, and PRC took over at the Bay 34. On the next play, Russell hit Morrison for a 34-yard touchdown pass. The ensuing extra point by Bryce Tarter made the score 35-21.

Xander Ladner scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak to cut the PRC lead to 35-28 with 6:06 left in the third quarter, but PRC answered with a seven-play, 70-yard drive capped by an 8-yard pass from Russell to Landon Wilson with 1:59 left in the third quarter.

Bay’s Trevion Allen caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from Ladner with 11:12 left in the game to cut the lead to 42-35, but Russell again found Morrison, this time for a 21-yard score, to push the lead to 49-35 with 9:18 to play.

Then, in a game which featured high-powered offenses, a key defensive play sealed the victory for the Devils. With the Tigers driving and at the PRC 34, PRC’s Blane Shepard came away with a key fumble, returning the ball 55 yards to the Bay 1. Two plays later, Russell slammed the door with a 1-yard touchdown run.

In the first half, PRC took the opening kickoff and drove to the Bay 4 before a fumble ended the drive. But the Devils regained possession shortly thereafter, when the Tigers failed on a fake punt. PRC took over at the Bay 29, and five plays later, Russell converted a third-and-6 from the 13 for the game’s first score.

Bay took its only lead of the game on touchdown runs of 2 and 26 yards by Antoine, the latter coming with 9:40 remaining in the first half.

But PRC scored the next three touchdowns.

On the first play after Antoine’s second score, Russell hit Morrison for a 65-yard touchdown to quickly even things up. Russell then scored on a 3-yard run to cap a six-play, 67-yard drive with 4:15 left in the half to make the score 21-14. After Bay failed to convert a fourth-and-4 from its own 40, Russell scored on a third-and-10 play from the 40 with 1:36 to play in the half.

Bay took advantage of a long kickoff return to the PRC 23 to cut into the lead just before the half. Ladner found Antoine for an 18-yard touchdown to make the Devils’ advantage 28-21 at the break.

Morrison said that he and his teammates felt confident going into the game, despite the Devils’ record.

“Honestly, I knew going in that we were going to win,” he said. “We have trust in each other and in our coaches. Coach Feaster stresses for us to ‘win the play’ and to ‘finish strong.’ That’s what we had to do – finish strong.”

Tarter was perfect on PATs, going 8-for-8.

Feaster cited Bryce Guy, Garrett Ouder, Titus Feaster, and Talan Johnson for solid play on defense.

“I was just so happy for our kids,” Feaster said. “Hopefully, this will give us confidence and belief. As a program, we’re still trying to get over that fear that bad things will happen to us.”