Football Preview: Redlands East Valley Wildcats vs. Cajon Cowboys
Redlands East Valley is 2-8 against Cajon since October of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Redlands East Valley Wildcats are taking a road trip to take on the Cajon Cowboys at 7:30 p.m. Redlands East Valley knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 31 points or more in their past four matchups -- so hopefully Cajon likes a good challenge.
Having struggled with ten losses in a row dating back to last season, Redlands East Valley finally turned things around against Redlands on Friday. They came out on top against the Terriers by a score of 31-21.
Redlands East Valley relied on the efforts of Nathen Lopez, who gained 283 total yards and two touchdowns, and Isaac Vitela, who rushed for 64 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries. Lopez's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 103 rushing yards.
Redlands East Valley was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 237 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Cajon didn't have quite enough to beat Beaumont on Friday and fell 34-31. Despite 186 more yards than the Cougars, the Cowboys couldn't convert that extra yardage to scores.
Cajon's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Evan Powell, who threw for 431 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 12.0 yards per attempt, and Dj Littles, who picked up 209 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Powell has become a key player for Cajon: the team is undefeated when he posts at least three passing touchdowns, but 1-2 otherwise. Cajon also got a significant boost from Brandon Rivers, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 96 yards.
Redlands East Valley's victory ended a five-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 1-5. As for Cajon, their loss dropped their record down to 4-2.
Thursday's match will pit two of the most dominant backs against one another: Lopez and Rivers. Lopez has put up some stellar numbers this year, and currently owns excellent season averages 131.2 rushing yards per game this season. For his part, Rivers has averaged 142.5 rushing yards per game this season.
Redlands East Valley was taken down by Cajon 44-0 in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Powell, who threw for 224 yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 79 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries. Now that Redlands East Valley knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
