Football Preview: Calipatria Hornets vs. Tri-City Christian Eagles
After starting their season with three straight games on the road, Calipatria is finally coming home. They will welcome the Tri-City Christian Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Calipatria is headed into the match after thoroughly thrashing O'Farrell Charter: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Calipatria blew O'Farrell Charter out of the water with a 56-14 final score. Fans of the Hornets have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season has ended in a blowout of 20+ point.
Dominic Hawk was a one-man wrecking crew for Calipatria as he rushed for 266 yards and four touchdowns on only 11 carries, and also threw for 42 yards and a touchdown. Hawk's longest rush was for an impressive 61 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. Another player making a difference was Juan Perez, who rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown on only five carries.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Calipatria was moving up and down the field and finished the game with 525 total yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as O'Farrell Charter only gained 379.
Calipatria's defense made their presence known, laying out the QB 11.5 times. Jaiden Lopez led the group effort, picking up three of those sacks all by himself. Oscar Lopez didn't just play on offense: he also picked up two sacks and made four total tackles (0.5 for loss).
Meanwhile, Tri-City Christian lost a heartbreaker to Southwest SD when they met back in August of 2022, and they left with a heavy heart again on Friday. Tri-City Christian and Southwest SD were almost perfectly matched up, but Tri-City Christian suffered a 34-33 defeat. The loss was the Eagles' first of the season.
Calipatria pushed their record up to 3-0 with that victory, which was their third straight on the road. As for Tri-City Christian, their loss was their first of the season and makes their record 2-1.
Calipatria took a serious blow against Tri-City Christian in their previous matchup back in November of 2023, falling 35-6. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Tri-City Christian's Joel Valverde, who threw for 150 yards and a touchdown, and also rushed for 58 yards on only seven carries. Now that Calipatria knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
