Football Preview: Moorpark Musketeers vs. Ventura Cougars
The Moorpark Musketeers will challenge the Ventura Cougars at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Friday, Moorpark made easy work of Oak Park and carried off a 38-14 victory. Considering the Musketeers have won three matches by more than 23 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Moorpark can attribute much of their success to Cooper Cronquist, who picked up 93 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Moorpark 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 October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Ventura strolled past Buena with points to spare on Friday, taking the game 34-20. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 224th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 479th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Gage Kushner and Derek Garcia were among the main playmakers for Ventura as the former rushed for 171 yards and a touchdown while picking up 7.1 yards per carry and the latter threw for 248 yards and four touchdowns. The dominant performance gave Kushner a new career-high in rushing yards. Jack Cunningham was Garcia's top target, picking up 67 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Ventura didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Daniel (Chucky) Munoz and Cristiano Alvarez.
Moorpark pushed their record up to 5-1 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Ventura, the victory got them back to even at 3-3.
Friday's matchup might be decided in the trenches. Moorpark has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 170.2 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Ventura, though, as they've been averaging only 86.3. How will they fare against such a dominant running game?
Moorpark lost to Ventura on the road by a decisive 35-19 margin in their previous meeting back in November of 2016. Thankfully for Moorpark, Broc Mortensen (who rushed for 256 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 12.8 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
