FROSTBURG — When Mountain Ridge needed a spark, it went back to the well.
Levi Clise scored all four touchdowns and the Miners (5-5) fought off a fourth-quarter comeback, taking down Smithsburg (4-6), 28-15, on Friday night in the Class 1A West Region playoffs.
The Leopards — the No. 6 seed in the region — recovered an onside kick to start the game, but the Miner defense drove them backwards on three successive plays and forced a punt on fourth-and-15.
Taking over at its own 11, Jasper Crissman got the Miners out of the shadow of their own goalposts with three runs for 16 yards.
Mountain Ridge, the No. 3 seed, converted its first third-down of the night on a swing pass from Clise to Daniel Swindle, who ran 45 yards to the Smithsburg 22.
Five plays later, Clise rolled out and rumbled into the end zone from six yards out. Will Hughes booted the extra point for a 7-0 lead at 3:41 in the first.
Aided by a Mountain Ridge defensive pass interference penalty, Smithsburg reached the Mountain Ridge 35 on the ensuing drive, but an overthrown pass on fourth-and-7 halted the drive.
Clise sent the Miners into the locker room with a 13-0 lead when he hauled in a six-yard touchdown pass from Brayden Glass with 49 ticks to go before the break. An errant snap on the PAT forced a two-point pass that was unsuccessful.
Mountain Ridge forced a three-and-out on Smithsburg’s opening drive of the second half and Clise needed just one play to extend the lead, running 70 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. Hughes’s PAT pushed the Miner lead to 20.
Clise’s fourth score came with 4:54 to go in the third, plunging in from three yards out. Clise hit Swindle on a two-point pass to make it a 28-0 game.
Clise finished with 14 carries for 194 yards to go along with 50 yards through the air on 2 of 2 passing.
The Leopards put up a pair of fourth-quarter scores on runs of eight and 15 yards from Nick Roncone, the latter coming with 2:14 remaining. Xavier Lewis ran in the two-point try to cut the Miner lead to 13.
Tristan Deter iced the game for the Miners, running for a first down on second-and-8 as Smithsburg opted not to use either of its two remaining timeouts.
Mountain Ridge will travel to Greenway Avenue Stadium next Saturday, 1 p.m., to take on second-seeded Allegany, which trounced Clear Spring 49-19 Friday night.
The Campers (5-5) won the regular-season contest, 21-13, in Frostburg on Sept. 19.