Football Preview: Faith Lutheran Crusaders vs. Shadow Ridge Mustangs
Faith Lutheran is on a six-game streak of home wins, while Shadow Ridge is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Faith Lutheran Crusaders will host the Shadow Ridge Mustangs at 6:00 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.
Faith Lutheran is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They blew past Green Valley 31-0. The Crusaders might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won six matchups by 21 points or more this season.
The critical scores for Faith Lutheran came from Nikolas Knight, Aipa Kuloloia, Jaxon Cope, and Mack Ford. The team also got some help courtesy of Alexander Rogers, who threw for 164 yards and three touchdowns.
Faith Lutheran's defense made their presence known, laying out the QB nine times. In that department, Cole Keith was the leader with four sacks. He has been hot for a while, having also posted six or more total tackles the last 21 times he's played. Faith Lutheran got some further help from Ricky Manning: he picked up a sack, forced a fumble, and made 15 total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, Shadow Ridge faced Legacy in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Friday. Shadow Ridge managed a 35-30 victory over Legacy.
Hector Velazquez was nothing short of spectacular: he rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown. The bulk of those rushing yards came from one huge play: a run that gained an incredible 72 yards. Tyrell Craven was another key rusher, rushing for 69 yards and a touchdown on only six carries.
Shadow Ridge was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 310 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 155 rushing yards in 12 consecutive games.
Shadow Ridge is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 9-3 record this season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 41.0 points per game. As for Faith Lutheran, their win bumped their record up to 10-0.
Faith Lutheran strolled past Shadow Ridge in their previous matchup back in September by a score of 35-20. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Craven, who rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns on only 12 carries. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Faith Lutheran still be able to contain Craven? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
