Three big plays by the offense, defense and special teams propelled No. 1-ranked Class 1A Leroy to a 42-10 rout of St. Luke’s Friday night on Farish Field at Palmer Stadium.

Quarterback Brayden Huebner found Jaquan Scott for a 51-yard touchdown pass, linebacker John Foster ran back an interception 52 yards for a touchdown and Malik Howell broke a 52-yard punt return for a third touchdown as the undefeated Bears sent coach Jason Massey off to his National Guard deployment with a decisive victory over the No. 8-ranked Class 2A Wildcats, who came into the game 5-0 for the first time in school history.

“We didn’t need to send coach out on a bad note,” said Huebner, the MVP of last year’s Class 1A state championship game. “We needed to win big.”

Massey, who is a non-commissioned officer with 30 years in the Guard, admitted he got emotional at the last game he’ll coach this season.

“These kids are like family,” he said. “From the end of last year at the state championship, we started building with these kids. To go out with a victory was definitely a sweet going away present.”

The defending state champions (4-0) — who have won 17 of their last 18 games — struggled to just 96 yards of total offense in the first half but began leaning on St. Luke’s with their running game in the second half and finished with 174 yards on the ground.

“We made some mistakes offensively and missed some blocking assignments,” Massey said. “Give credit to them for that. We were able to hit some plays and we scored in the kicking game and on defense and had a safety.”

Meanwhile, the Bears’ defense, which came into the game as the best in 1A against the score — allowing just 6.3 points per game — held the Wildcats to only 105 yards into the fourth quarter until Massey put his backups in.

“I’m proud of our defense,” Massey said. “We held them to three points basically and that was off a turnover.”

Huebner started the offensive scoring in the first quarter with a 12-yard TD run after Timothy Parnell chased Wildcats quarterback Jeremy Menhennett out of the end zone and forced an intentional grounding penalty for a safety.

Huebner’s 51-yard pass to Scott on a slant and Foster’s 52-yard pick-six in the second quarter made it 21-3 at halftime.

Howell’s 52-yard punt return in the third quarter made it 28-3, Howell added a 3-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter and seventh-grader Ayden Tolbert added a spinning 20-yard TD run late in the game to finish an 82-yard, 14-play drive by Leroy’s backup offense.

Play of the game: Huebner’s 51-yard TD pass to Scott on a slant route after the Bears went into an empty set and spread the field, forcing St. Luke’s into man-to-man coverage.

“The running game wasn’t working and he gave me the stutter slant and I took it on in,” Scott said.

Up to that point, Leroy had just 44 yards rushing.

“They’re hard to run against,” Huebner said of the Wildcats. “They blitz a lot. When we went to the empty set, they were in man coverage.”

By the numbers: 91-4, the Bears’ record since 2000 when scoring 40-plus points … 107-5, the Bears’ record since 2000 when allowing 10 or fewer points … 9, straight quarters Leroy held the Wildcats scoreless over three seasons until Jameson Bryant kicked a 28-yard field goal in the second quarter following Huebner’s fumble … 7-28, St. Luke’s record against ranked teams since 1984.

Good start: It’s the 16th time the Bears have started a season 4-0 and it’s usually a good omen. From those 4-0 starts, they’ve won five of their six Blue Maps, made the semifinals four times and the state championship game two other times.

Statistically speaking: Leroy had more total offensive yardage, 247-192 … Menhennett was 8-of-25 passing for 104 yards … Huebner was 5 of 9 for 73 yards and added 63 yards on 12 carries … Howell had 68 yards on 15 carries … the Wildcats were just 2 of 13 on third down and both conversions were due to pass-interference penalties on the Bears.

Coachspeak: “The first half, they had big plays. Their athletes do what they do — they make plays. They do a great job. When they have the opportunity, they take advantage of it. But I’m proud of our kids. I don’t think they quit. It was a good learning experience. We’re certainly not disappointed in where we are. We feel privileged to have played coach Massey in his last game. We wish them the best the rest of the year.” — St. Luke’s coach Ronn Lee.

Next week: Leroy (2-0 1A Region 1) hosts J.F. Shields while the Wildcats (3-0 2A Region 1) visit Francis Marion.