Football Preview: Central Grizzlies vs. Clovis Cougars
Central has gone 9-1 against Clovis recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The Central Grizzlies will face off against the Clovis Cougars at 7:00 p.m. Both might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 976 yards in their previous games.
Central took a loss when they played away from home last Thursday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They took down Clovis West 45-27.
Jelani Dippel continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 209 yards and four touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Central was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 293 rushing yards. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved they're rushing yard total in four consecutive matchups.
Central didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Brandon Smith and Gerald Perry Jr. The dominant performance also gave Smith a new career-high in rushing yards. Central got some further help from Marcus Nolen: he picked up 2.5 sacks and made six total tackles.
Despite a strong season so far, Clovis has seen their luck take a bit of a downturn recently. They lost to Clovis East at home by a 52-33 margin on Friday. The Cougars gained 88 more yards on the day, but it was the Timberwolves that made the best use of them.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Maddox Merrill, who rushed for 154 yards and a touchdown, and also picked up 42 receiving yards and a touchdown. He showed off some serious burst, turning on the afterburners on one carry for 54 yards. Syrus Mendes also helped out with an impressive 84 receiving yards.
Central's victory bumped their record up to 6-2. As for Clovis, their loss ended a seven-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 6-2.
Thursday's game will pit two of the most dominant signal callers against one another: Dippel and Deagan Rose. Dippel has put up some stellar numbers this year, and currently owns excellent season averages 243.4 passing yards and has 24 passing touchdowns on the season. For his part, Rose has averaged 255.4 passing yards and has 23 passing touchdowns on the season.
Central and Clovis were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in September of 2023, but Central came up empty-handed after a 38-37 defeat. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Rose, who rushed for 41 yards and three touchdowns, and also threw for 230 yards and a touchdown. Now that Central knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
