Football Preview: Whittier Cardinals vs. Santa Fe Chiefs
Whittier has been on the road for three straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. They will host the Santa Fe Chiefs at 7:00 p.m.
Whittier's offense might be in the hot seat on Friday considering what happened against La Serna on Friday. They were beaten by the Lancers 56-0. While losing is never fun, the Cardinals can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 843rd, while the Lancers are ranked 119th).
Meanwhile, Santa Fe got the win against California last Friday by a conclusive 48-22. The Chiefs might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five matches by 21 points or more this season.
Andrew Lopez went supernova for Santa Fe, rushing for 118 yards and two touchdowns on only eight carries, while also throwing for 73 yards and two touchdowns. The dominant performance gave Lopez a new career-high in rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Devin Clark, who rushed for 134 yards and a touchdown on only 12 carries.
Santa Fe didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Matthew Hernandez and Luke Hitch. Hitch also made four total tackles, which is notable because Santa Fe is undefeated when he posts at least four total tackles, but 1-2 otherwise.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Santa Fe was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 360 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 220 rushing yards in five consecutive matchups.
Whittier now has a losing record at 3-4. As for Santa Fe, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Whittier was dealt a bruising 42-8 defeat at the hands of Santa Fe in their previous meeting back in October of 2023. Thankfully for Whittier, Tariq Bush (who rushed for 207 yards and three touchdowns on only 12 carries) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
