Football Preview: Granite Hills Cougars vs. Barstow Aztecs
Granite Hills has been on the road for two straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. They will take on the Barstow Aztecs at 7:00 p.m. Granite Hills is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 29.1 points per game this season.
Last Friday, Granite Hills didn't have quite enough to beat Victor Valley and fell 23-21.
Although Granite Hills took the loss, they still got scores from Brody Reeves, Roberto Sanchez, and Sayani Long.
Meanwhile, Barstow had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 30 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They came out on top against the Hawks by a score of 35-28.
Nicholas Gaoa continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 288 yards while picking up 8.2 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Dwayne Williams, who threw for 155 yards and three touchdowns.
Barstow was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 381 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Granite Hills' defeat dropped their record down to 5-3. As for Barstow, their victory bumped their record up to 7-1.
Friday's contest might be decided in the on the ground. Granite Hills has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 223.8 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Barstow struggles in that department as they've been averaging 237.9. It's looking like Friday's match might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Granite Hills strolled past Barstow when the teams last played back in October of 2023 by a score of 52-35. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Williams, who rushed for 131 yards and four touchdowns on only 12 carries, and also threw for 121 yards on eight of 12 attempts. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Granite Hills still be able to contain Williams? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
