Football Preview: Woods Cross Wildcats vs. Box Elder Bees
Woods Cross and Box Elder are an even 5-5 against one another since October of 2015, but not for long. The Woods Cross Wildcats will challenge the Box Elder Bees at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Woods Cross is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 29.5 points per game this season.
Woods Cross took a loss when they played away from home last Friday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past Northridge 12-10. The 12-point effort marked the Wildcats' lowest-scoring match of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Woods Cross' win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Viliami Tapa'Atoutai, who rushed for 167 yards. Tapa'Atoutai also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, picking up two sacks and making six total tackles. Nathan Webb was another key back, rushing for 77 yards and a touchdown.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Woods Cross was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 344 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Northridge only rushed for 74.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Woods Cross' defense and their five sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Okusitino Sa and Tapa'Atoutai, who racked up four sacks between them. Sa is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last eight games he's played dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, a victory for Box Elder just wasn't in the cards on Friday as the squad wasn't able to take the lead at any point. They had to suffer through a 50-21 loss at the hands of Bountiful. The Bees have struggled against the RedHawks recently, as their game on Friday was their fourth consecutive lost matchup.
Woods Cross is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season. As for Box Elder, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-5.
Woods Cross didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Box Elder in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, but they still walked away with a 17-12 win. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Box Elder's Dax Sumko, who rushed for 170 yards and a touchdown while picking up 10.0 yards per carry. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Woods Cross still be able to contain Sumko? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
