Football Preview: Mohave Thunderbirds vs. Paradise Honors Panthers
The Mohave Thunderbirds will welcome the Paradise Honors Panthers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Mohave comes in on seven and Paradise Honors on four.
Mohave is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Sabino: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Mohave blew Sabino out of the water with a 41-7 final score. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 28-7.
Mohave's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Anthony Moses, who picked up 98 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The team also got some help courtesy of Triston Urias, who rushed for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Another reason for the win was Mohave's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for five sacks. Sabino's QB won't forget Gage Maynes anytime soon given he sacked him three times.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Paradise Honors). They breezed by Kofa to the tune of 62-14 on Friday. The result was nothing new for the Panthers, who have now won three matchups by 34 points or more so far this season.
Preston Brown continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, picking up 149 receiving yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing for 66 yards and a touchdown. Those 66 rushing yards gave him a new career-high. Charles Vandyke handled things on the ground, rushing for 104 yards and a rushing touchdown.
Paradise Honors was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 360 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 69.2 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five contests they've averaged 164.2.
Paradise Honors didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Flavio Cano Jr and Josiah Figueroa. Figueroa is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last five games he's played. Another thorn in Kofa's side was Caden Wasden, who picked up a sack, forced two fumbles, and made four total tackles.
Mohave pushed their record up to 8-2 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 41.6 points per game. As for Paradise Honors, their victory ended a four-game drought on the road and puts them at 6-4.
Mohave came up short against Paradise Honors in their previous meeting back in August, falling 34-27. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Paradise Honors' Nolan Rau, who threw for 223 yards and four touchdowns, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. Now that Mohave 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
