LIBERTY &045; Trinity Episcopal hit the ground running Friday night &045; literally and figuratively.

Sophomore running back Stevan Ridley led a powerful rushing attack that racked up 253 yards on the ground and led the Saints to a 34-0 thrashing of Amite School Center in the season opener for both squads.

Ridley had a huge game, running the ball 26 times for 191 yards and four touchdowns, completing a halfback pass to wide receiver Scott Hanson for 41 yards and racking up two sacks on defense.

&uot;It feels great (to get this win),&uot; Ridley said. &uot;I had a great push up on the line, the linemen did good work and we improved a lot this week. We had some difficulties last week in jamboree, but they worked hard and gave me a good push and that’s what opened up these holes for me. I couldn’t do it without the line.&uot;

The Saints took to the air early on to soften up the Rebel defense as both Ridley and quarterback Zach Rogel connected with Hanson for three big plays including a touchdown that gave Trinity a 16-0 lead with 5:29 still remaining in the first quarter.

Those plays, and the pounding Saints running game, seemed to take the air out of a young Rebel team.

&uot;They had a couple big plays to start, and we just got our heads down,&uot; ASC head coach Paul Kirchharr said. &uot;We have to learn to pick it back up and go with it.&uot;

Saints head coach Dave King said he was proud of his team’s effort and the improvement the showed from last week’s showing at their jamboree.

&uot;We’re excited,&uot; King said. &uot;The group played extremely hard. Our seniors had this group focused, and this is one of the games we had to pencil in early in the year to get off to a good start with this brutal schedule. I thought our team played extremely aggressive and it was a good win to start off the season.&uot;

The Saints slowed down in the second half scoring only once and taking advantage of the big lead to give young players some experience. The team had only 13 varsity players before King brought players up from junior varsity.