Football Preview: Yucaipa Thunderbirds vs. Warren Bears
Two dominant backs in Logan Barbour and Skylar Lendsey are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Yucaipa Thunderbirds will look to defend their home field on Friday against the Warren Bears at 7:00 p.m. Yucaipa is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 34.6 points per game this season.
Yucaipa is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past Peninsula 10-7. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Thunderbirds.
Meanwhile, Warren had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. Everything went their way against the Grizzlies as they made off with a 40-14 victory.
It was another big night for Lendsey, who rushed for 138 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries. Warren is 4-2 when Lendsey posts two or more rushing touchdowns, but 1-5 otherwise. Teralle Watson was another key back, rushing for 58 yards and two touchdowns.
Warren was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 242 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 83.3 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five matches they've averaged 162.6.
Warren didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Anthony Tate and Jaiden Padilla. Raymond Thomas was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making seven total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Warren has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a massive bump to their 5-7 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 34.4 points per game. As for Yucaipa, their win bumped their record up to 8-4.
Friday's game might be decided in the trenches. Yucaipa has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 277.2 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Warren, though, as they've been averaging only 86.5. How will they fare against such a dominant running game? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
