ST. IGNACE – It was a rematch of last season’s playoff opener and a similar result.

St. Ignace advanced past Newberry 50-20 in a Division 8 pre-district football game Friday night.

St. Ignace (9-1) will go on the road to play Johannesburg-Lewiston (9-1) for the district championship.

The Saints took control early and raced to a 30-6 lead by halftime and 44-6 through three quarters.

“Hats off to St. Ignace. They do a nice job and just seem to reload every year,” Newberry coach Fred Bryant said.

“We didn’t execute. We had open receivers, but we dropped too many passes, and we were never able to loosen their defense. St. Ignace made the plays on both sides of the ball when they needed to, and we didn’t.

“That will be the next step for us,” Bryant added. “We need to be able to execute in big games.”

Newberry quarterback John Paramski was 13-of-28 passing for 255 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception.

While the Indians had some success passing, their running game was held to less than 100 yards.

Paramski threw an 84-yard TD pass to Reese Zuhlke in the first quarter, and an 11-yard TD to Josh Hood in the fourth.

The Indians’ only other points came on a 14-yard pass from Jeff Rahilly to Zuhlke with 2:23 remaining.

Newberry finishes 6-4.

“By making the playoffs again, we had a lot of young guys get extra practice and reps,” Bryant said. “We’ll have to learn and grow from this.

“It stings right now, but we have a chance to be better next year.”

The Saints showed a diverse attack.

The big playmakers were senior running back Andrew Goldthorpe and senior quarterback Gage Kreski. Goldthorpe led the ground game with 162 yards on seven carries and scored on runs of 49 and 22 yards.

Goldthorpe also caught five passes for 45 yards and hauled in TD catches of 12 and 13 yards from Kreski.

David LaVake and Kreski also ran for touchdowns, while backup quarterback Steve Seccia threw a TD pass to Mitchell Peterson for the Saints.

“I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage,” St. Ignace coach Marty Spencer said. “Our defense played very well.

“This defensive line is as good as any I’ve coached here. They just seem to play better every week.”