Football Recap: Jackson Bishop Leads Palm Desert's Defense on Thursday + How To Watch

Alfred 'AJ' Rivera Jr.

Passing Touchdowns

10/16/25 @ Shadow Hills	4
09/19/25 @ Redlands	4
09/05/25 vs Elsinore	4
10/10/25 vs Rancho Mirage	2
09/12/25 @ Yucaipa	2
+ 2 more games

If Shadow Hills wanted to avenge their loss from the last time they played Palm Desert, they should've done a better job of containing Alfred 'AJ' Rivera Jr.. The Aztecs blew past the Knights 38-14 on Thursday with plenty of help from Rivera Jr., who threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 11.1 yards per attempt, and also rushed for 31 yards. He is becoming a predictor of Palm Desert's success: when he posts at least three passing touchdowns the team is undefeated (and 2-3 when he doesn't).

On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Palm Desert's defense and their three sacks. In fact, those sacks all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Jackson Bishop. He has been hot, having posted at least one sack the last six times he's played.

Shadow Hills' defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Brandon Peffers, who picked up 96 receiving yards and one score.

Palm Desert has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games. That's provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to yards per carry: they averaged an imposing 5.48 yards per carry in those games compared to only 3.03 in the others. As for Shadow Hills, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 4-4.

We've got plenty of inter-league action coming up soon. Palm Desert is set to square off against their familiar foe Palm Springs at 7:00 p.m. on the 24th. Meanwhile, Shadow Hills will challenge rival La Quinta at 7:00 p.m. on the 24th.