DANVILLE — The top-seeded Blue Devils flexed their muscles Friday night at Tough Street Stadium.
Quarterback Jacob Hackman threw a career-high four touchdown passes and the defense limited No. 16 Bridgeport to 60 yards of total offense in a 54-0 win in the opening round of the Division VII, Region 27 playoffs.
The Blue Devils (9-2) will host No. 8 Portsmouth Notre Dame in Friday night’s regional quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Notre Dame beat Shadyside 34-12.
A senior, Hackman completed 8-of-14 passes for 132 yards. He threw scoring strikes of 48, 25, 4 and 16 yards.
“We felt like we had some matchups we could take advantage of in the passing game,” Hackman said. “Our receivers made some great plays tonight. I have complete faith in them.”
The pass Hackman was most excited about came late in the first half on a two-point conversion. He pitched the ball to Aidan Burke, who raced to his right then threw back to Hackman in the corner of the end zone to extend Danville’s lead to 40-0.
“I’ve never caught a pass. That was a dream come true,” Hackman said. “I was so excited when they called that play, more excited than any of the touchdown passes I threw.”
Danville led 8-0 after the first quarter thanks to a 2-yard Burke TD run — before blowing it open in the second.
Hackman hooked up with Levi Furay on a 48-yard scoring strike before finding Aidan Mickley on a 25-yarder to push the Danville lead to 24-0. Bure scored on a 3-yard run to make it 32-0 and Hackman’s 4-yarder to Caleb Lucas goosed the advantage to 40-0 at the half.
Hackman played just one series in the third quarter. He connected with Burke on a 16-yard TD pass then took a seat for good midway through the third quarter.
“We like to pound and ground, but we wanted to open it up tonight,” Danville coach Matthew Blum said. “Teams have to respect our passing game if we want to continue to run the ball the way we have.
“Jacob made good decisions and showed off his athleticism.”
Danville’s defense was every bit as dominant as the offense. The Blue Devils gave up just 5 rushing yards on 26 Bridgeport attempts.
“Ever since our (41-6) loss at Northmor in Week 5, we’ve made a complete (180),” Blum said. “It goes back to the kids. They could have folded, but they went back to work and we’re seeing the by-product of that.
“It speaks to the leadership of our seniors. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”