Football Preview: Yucaipa Thunderbirds vs. Redlands Terriers
Yucaipa has gone 8-2 against Redlands recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The Yucaipa Thunderbirds will square off against the Redlands Terriers at 7:30 p.m. Yucaipa is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 36.9 points per game this season.
Yucaipa will roll into the contest after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up seven points last Friday, then bounced right back against Redlands East Valley on Thursday. Yucaipa put the hurt on Redlands East Valley with a sharp 67-45 win. The result was nothing new for the Thunderbirds, who have now won three games by 22 points or more so far this season.
The match pitted two dominant backs against one another in Logan Barbour and Nathen Lopez. Barbour had a great game and rushed for 260 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 9.6 yards per carry. Meanwhile, Lopez was balling out in the loss, rushing for 107 yards on only ten carries, while also catching a touchdown.
Yucaipa's defensive line made their presence known, laying out Isaac Vitela. four times. Leading the way was Alejandro Banales with two sacks. He is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last four games he's played dating back to last season. Yucaipa got some further help from Evan Darling: he made 11 total tackles (1.0 for loss) and defended a pass.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Yucaipa was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 493 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Redlands entered their match against Cajon on Friday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. Redlands was outmatched by Cajon at home and fell 49-10. The Terriers just can't catch a break and have now endured three losses in a row.
Redlands wouldn't let Cajon keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Redlands can thank Caine Lopez and Matt Steinmann for forcing both of them. Another thorn in Cajon's side was Jacob Foster, who made 11 total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Yucaipa's victory bumped their record up to 5-3. As for Redlands, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-4.
Everything came up roses for Yucaipa against Redlands when the teams last played back in October of 2023, as the team secured a 34-0 win. Will Yucaipa repeat their success, or does Redlands have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
