Football Recap: Palo Verde Wins High-Profile Match Against Coronado

On Thursday, Palo Verde faced Coronado in a battle between two of the state's top teams. The Palo Verde Panthers welcomed the New Year with a 12-6 win over the Coronado Cougars. The Panthers have seen this before: they got the W the last time they saw the Cougars, too.

The critical scores for Palo Verde came from Alexis Manzo and Alexis Lunkwitz.

On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Palo Verde's defense and their five sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Madeline West and Makyra Ritter, who racked up four sacks between them.

Panthers

Previous 4 Games

01/02/25 vs Coronado	12-6
01/02/25 vs Pinecrest Academy Cadence	13-0
12/13/24 @ Las Vegas	26-19
12/11/24 @ Green Valley	20-0

The victory (which was Palo Verde's fourth in a row) raised their record to 9-1. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 6.3 points per game. As for Coronado, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 4-4.

Palo Verde will take on Southeast Career Tech at 10:00 a.m. on Friday. Both have allowed few points on average, (Southeast Career Tech: 6.9, Palo Verde: 10.2) so any points scored will be well earned. As for Coronado, they will face off against Centennial at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Coronado's defense has only allowed 12.9 points per game this season, so Centennial's offense will have their work cut out for them.