Football Preview: Desert Ridge Jaguars vs. Highland Hawks
Two dominant signal callers in Lexi Harper and Alexis Eley are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Desert Ridge Jaguars are taking a road trip to challenge the Highland Hawks at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Desert Ridge's defense heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. They put the hurt on Williams Field with a sharp 26-0 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Jaguars.
Harper was her usual excellent self, throwing for 208 yards and two touchdowns while completing 72% of her passes, and also rushing for 85 yards and a touchdown on only 12 carries. That's the most rushing yards she has posted since back in October of 2023.
Desert Ridge didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Rebecca Tomerlin and Morgan Montgomery. Montgomery also snagged an interception, which is notable because Desert Ridge is 3-1 when she posts at least one interception, but 3-4 otherwise.
Meanwhile, Highland had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 17.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They were the clear victor by a 28-6 margin over the Knights. The result was nothing new for the Hawks, who have now won seven matchups by 20 points or more so far this season.
Eley continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 50 yards and two touchdowns, while also throwing for 208 yards and a touchdown while completing 80.8% of her passes.
Another reason for the win was Highland's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for six sacks. Kylie Riggs was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up fiveherself. She is on a roll when it comes to sacks, as she's now sacked two or more in the last three games she's played.
Desert Ridge now has a winning record of 6-5. As for Highland, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-3 record this season.
Desert Ridge came up short against Highland in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, falling 10-6. Can Desert Ridge avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
