Football Preview: Westchester Comets vs. Palisades Dolphins
Westchester has enjoyed a five-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will face off against the Palisades Dolphins at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Westchester's defense has only allowed 8.3 points per game this season, so Palisades' offense will have their work cut out for them.
Westchester is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. Their defense stepped up to hand University a 48-0 shutout on Friday. Given the Comets' advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 434th, while the Wildcats are ranked 962nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Westchester can attribute much of their success to Jayden Hightower, who threw for 134 yards and four touchdowns, and Justen Key, who rushed for 146 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries. Key's longest rush was for an impressive 56 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Westchester was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 339 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.
Meanwhile, Palisades was able to grind out a solid victory over Fairfax on Friday, taking the game 22-14. The 22-point effort marked the Dolphins' lowest-scoring game of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Palisades relied on the efforts of Jack Thomas, who threw for 149 yards and a touchdown, and Harrison Carter, who rushed for 54 yards and a touchdown.
Palisades didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Jake Treibatch and Nico Townsley. Treibatch is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made eight or more in the last seven games he's played dating back to last season.
Westchester's win was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 6-0. As for Palisades, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 5-1.
Westchester took a serious blow against Palisades in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, falling 37-6. Thankfully for Westchester, Roman La Scala (who threw for 153 yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 49 yards and a touchdown) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
