Football Game Preview: St. Paul Knights vs. Southbridge Pioneers

The St. Paul Knights will venture away from home to square off against the Southbridge Pioneers at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. St. Paul is coming into the game on a five-game losing streak.

Last Friday, St. Paul was beaten by Leicester 54-14.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Southbridge, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Friday. Everything went their way against Quaboag Regional on Friday as they made off with a 32-8 win. The high-scoring performance was a welcome turnaround for the Pioneers' offense, which had struggled in the games prior.

St. Paul better focus on containing Miguel Velasquez and JJ Maldonado Cosme as the pair were huge in Southbridge's win. Velasquez rushed for 201 yards while picking up 12.6 yards per carry, while Maldonado Cosme rushed for 113 yards and one TD on only nine carries. The dominant performance also gave Maldonado Cosme a new career-high in passer rating (128.1).

Southbridge was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 334 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 71.3 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five matchups they've averaged 193.3.

Southbridge's defense made their presence known, laying out the QB three times. In fact, those sacks all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Gino Pontdujour.

St. Paul's defeat dropped their record down to 1-7. As for Southbridge, their record now sits at 2-7.