Football Preview: St. John's Mavericks vs. Cooper Dragons
St. John has gone 4-0 against Cooper recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The St. John's Mavericks will look to defend their home field against the Cooper Dragons at 7:00 p.m. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
St. John's is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Lutheran South Academy 62-35 at home. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
It was another big night for Cole Allen, who rushed for 190 yards and three touchdowns on only ten carries, and also picked up 101 receiving yards and two touchdowns. His longest rush was for an incredible 73 yards. Shea Quinn was another key player, throwing for 248 yards and three touchdowns while completing 81.8% of his passes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, St. John's was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 337 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Cooper on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that they blew Cypress Christian out of the water with a 39-7 final score. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Dragons had established a 25 point advantage.
Dean Calhoun was his usual excellent self, rushing for 101 yards and two touchdowns, while also picking up 134 receiving yards. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 101 rushing yards dating back to last season.
St. John's win was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-1. As for Cooper, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 2-3.
The upcoming match will be a clash of competing strengths. St. John's has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 274.4 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Cooper has preferred to attack from the air: they average 275 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
St. John's strolled past Cooper in their previous matchup back in August of 2021 by a score of 35-21. Does St. John's have another victory up their sleeve, or will Cooper turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
