Football Preview: Coronado Thunderbirds vs. Franklin Cougars
Coronado is 1-9 against Franklin since October of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Coronado Thunderbirds will be playing at home against the Franklin Cougars at 6:00 p.m. Coronado is coming into the matchup hot, having won their last seven games dating back to last season.
Last Friday, everything went Coronado's way against Parkland as Coronado made off with a 30-10 win.
Cody Hunt was nothing short of spectacular: he rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns on only 14 carries. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards.
Coronado wouldn't let Parkland keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Coronado can thank Xaevean Rivas and Scott Strachan for forcing both of them. Strachan is also crushing it when it comes to forced fumbles: he's earned at least one every time he's taken the field this season.
Meanwhile, everything came up roses for Franklin on the road against Americas on Thursday as the team secured a 51-17 victory.
Ernie Powers continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 248 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 15.5 yards per carry. His longest rush was for an incredible 89 yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Atreyu DeLaRiva, who rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Franklin was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 466 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 192 rushing yards in ten consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Coronado's win bumped their record up to 3-0. As for Franklin, the victory got them back to even at 2-2.
Thursday's game might be decided in the on the ground. Coronado has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 201 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Franklin struggles in that department as they've been averaging 298. It's looking like Thursday's contest might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Coronado and Franklin were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in September of 2023, but Coronado came up empty-handed after a 14-13 defeat. Can Coronado avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
