Football Preview: Grants Pirates vs. Taos Tigers
The Grants Pirates will challenge the Taos Tigers at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both are strolling into their matchups after big wins in their previous games.
If Grants beats Taos with 28 points on Friday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two games with that exact score. Everything went Grants' way against Aztec last Friday as Grants made off with a 28-6 victory. The match marked the Pirates' most dominant win of the season.
Grants' success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Julian Fernandez led the charge by rushing for 134 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries. Another player making a difference was Tristin Fernandez, who rushed for 77 yards and a touchdown on only six carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Grants was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 293 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
Grants didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Cardenio Chavez and Brandon Wheeler.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Taos, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Friday. They blew past Espanola Valley 27-7 on Friday.
The victory got Grants back to even at 3-3. As for Taos, they pushed their record up to 4-2 with the win, which was their third straight at home.
Grants won a contest that couldn't have been any closer in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, slipping by Taos 28-27. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Taos' Evan Salazar, who threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns, and also rushed for 100 yards on only nine carries. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Grants still be able to contain Salazar? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
