Football Preview: Socorro Bulldogs vs. Eastwood Troopers
Socorro hasn't had much luck against Eastwood recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Socorro Bulldogs will venture away from home to face off against the Eastwood Troopers at 7:30 p.m. Eastwood took a loss in their last match and will be looking to turn the tables on Socorro, who comes in off a win.
Socorro is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They strolled past Cathedral with points to spare on Friday, taking the game 37-19. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Bulldogs.
Eder Hernandez was his usual excellent self, rushing for 186 yards and four touchdowns. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards.
Socorro wouldn't let Cathedral keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Socorro can thank Prince Vital and Roman Alvarado for forcing both of them. Alvarado is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made seven or more in the last six games he's played dating back to last season. Another thorn in Cathedral's side was Matthew Avila, who picked up 1.5 sacks and made 13 total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Socorro was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 243 rushing yards. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved they're rushing yard total in three consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Eastwood entered their game against El Dorado on Friday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. Eastwood and El Dorado were almost perfectly matched up, but Eastwood suffered a 55-54 defeat.
Despite the loss, Eastwood got top-tier performance from Ethan Camacho-Williams, who threw for 186 yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. Jayden Martinez also helped out as he racked up 113 rushing yards.
Socorro's win ended a six-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 2-2. As for Eastwood, their defeat dropped their record down to an identical 2-2.
The upcoming contest will be a clash of competing strengths. Socorro has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 219.2 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Eastwood has preferred to attack from the air: they average 275.5 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Socorro took a serious blow against Eastwood in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, falling 63-7. Thankfully for Socorro, Evan Minjarez (who threw for 273 yards and five touchdowns while completing 82.4% of his passes) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
