Preview: Wilsonville Wildcats vs. Crater Comets
The Wilsonville Wildcats have the luxury of staying home another week and will welcome the Crater Comets at 7:00 p.m. on November 3rd. Wilsonville knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past six games -- so hopefully Crater likes a good challenge.
Wilsonville can now show off seven landslide victories after their most recent match on Friday. They claimed a resounding 49-22 win over Canby at home.
Mark Wiepert and Kallen Gutridge were among the main playmakers for Wilsonville as the former picked up 155 receiving yards and four touchdowns and the latter threw for 349 yards and six touchdowns while picking up 11.3 yards per attempt. Gutridge hasn't dropped below three passing touchdowns for five straight games. Nick Crowley also helped out as he racked up 109 receiving yards.
Crater fell on hard times earlier this season, but after back-to-back victories it seems like their luck might finally be changing. They came out on top against South Eugene by a score of 35-26 on Friday.
It was another big night for Valentin Rodriguez, who rushed for 345 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 8.4 yards per carry. Rodriguez was no stranger to the big play, taking off on a dash that went for 50 yards.
Wilsonville's win was their 14th straight at home (dating back to last season), bumping their overall record up to 8-1. It's not like the team was facing easy opposition over that stretch either, as it included 13-3 Bend and 13-3 Bend (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 58.3% over those games). As for Crater, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 4-5 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's match: Wilsonville has been excellent in the air this season, having averaged 276.7 passing yards per game. It's a different story for Crater, though, as they've been averaging only 80.2 per game. How will Crater fare against such a dominant passing game?
Wilsonville took a serious blow against Crater in their previous matchup back in September of 2019, falling 40-0. Thankfully for Wilsonville, Trever Davis (who rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown on only eight carries, and also threw for 219 yards and three touchdowns) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
