Football Preview: Soquel Knights vs. Aptos Mariners
Soquel has won three straight games at home, while Aptos has won three straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Friday. The Soquel Knights will welcome the Aptos Mariners at 7:30 p.m. Soquel is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 28 points per game this season.
Last Friday, everything went Soquel's way against Salinas as Soquel made off with a 34-14 win. Considering the Knights have won four matches by more than 19 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Soquel to victory, but perhaps none more so than Tyreis Lundy, who rushed for 213 yards and a touchdown while picking up 10.7 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave Lundy a new career-high in rushing yards. Another passer making a difference was Sam Whelan, who threw for 139 yards and three touchdowns on only 12 passes.
Soquel didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Jake Escalante and Adrian Lopez-Kais.
Meanwhile, Aptos won a contest that couldn't have been any closer, slipping by Everett Alvarez 23-22.
The critical scores for Aptos came from Nate Garcia, Ryan Solorio, and Damian Suchil.
Aptos was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 282 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 154 rushing yards in 19 consecutive games dating back to last season.
Aptos now has a winning record of 5-4. As for Soquel, their victory bumped their record up to 7-2.
Friday's matchup might be decided in the on the ground. Soquel has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 187 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Aptos struggles in that department as they've been averaging 277.1. It's looking like Friday's match might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Soquel was able to grind out a solid win over Aptos in their previous matchup back in November of 2023, winning 26-14. Does Soquel have another victory up their sleeve, or will Aptos turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
