Football Preview: Highland Hawks vs. Desert Ridge Jaguars
Two dominant backs in Kash Allen and Michael Alvarado are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Highland Hawks will challenge the Desert Ridge Jaguars at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Highland is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Queen Creek, who was ranked seventh in their home state at the time (Highland was ranked tenth). Highland fell just short of Queen Creek by a score of 23-20 on Friday. The Hawks have been going strong on the season, but this is now their second loss in a row.
Highland might have lost, but man, Kalen Fisher was a machine: he threw for 294 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 11.3 yards per attempt, and also rushed for 46 yards. The dominant performance gave Fisher a new career-high in rushing yards.
Meanwhile, Desert Ridge waltzed into their game on Friday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They enjoyed a cozy 38-24 win over the Jackrabbits.
Highland's defeat ended an eight-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 6-3. As for Desert Ridge, their victory bumped their record up to 3-6.
Highland was able to grind out a solid win over Desert Ridge when the teams last played back in November of 2023, winning 12-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Highland since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
