Football Preview: Brighton Bengals vs. West Panthers
The Brighton Bengals will stay at home for another week and welcome the West Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Brighton's defense heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Layton Christian Academy 41-0 at home. Given the Bengals' advantage in MaxPreps' Utah football rankings (they are ranked tenth, while the Eagles are ranked 74th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Alex Degroot had an outrageously good game as he threw for 290 yards and four touchdowns while completing 71.4% of his passes. Cash Gay was Degroot's top target, picking up 139 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Another reason for the win was Brighton's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for six sacks. Kaleb Miller was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up threehimself. Another thorn in Layton Christian Academy's side was Jaxon Nettleton, who picked up 0.5 sacks, forced two fumbles, and made two total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, West had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 36.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They breezed by the Leopards on the road to the tune of 48-19. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 22-0.
Lote Sotele continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 203 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 8.5 yards per carry, and also picking up 60 receiving yards and a touchdown. Sotele is crushing it when it comes to rushing yards: he's rushed for at least 154 every time he's taken the field this season. Kamden Lopati was another key player, throwing for 318 yards and two touchdowns while completing 72% of his passes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, West was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 358 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 169 rushing yards in 14 consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Brighton pushed their record up to 8-1 with the win, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season. As for West, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-4 record this season.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Brighton has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 172.8 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, West has preferred to attack from the air: they average 341.3 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Wednesday? There's only one way to find out.
Brighton came up short against West in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, falling 31-24. Will Brighton have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
