Football Preview: East Leopards vs. West Panthers
A classic East v. West is on the schedule. The East Leopards will welcome the West Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are strolling into their matches after big wins in their previous games.
Having struggled with three defeats in a row, East finally turned things around against Skyline on Friday. They blew past the Eagles 35-12. Considering the Leopards have won three games by more than 20 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Meanwhile, West made easy work of Highland on Friday and carried off a 40-16 win. The Panthers pushed the score to 34-9 by the end of the third, a deficit the Rams cut but never quite recovered from.
West found their leader in underclassman Kamden Lopati, who threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns while completing 72.7% of his passes, and also rushed for 80 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries. Another player making a difference was Lote Sotele, who gained 250 total yards.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, West was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 375 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
West didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Lava Vailahi and Manu Tua'One. Aisea Angilau was another major factor on D, picking up three sacks and making seven total tackles.
The victory got East back to even at 4-4. As for West, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 4-4 record this season.
Things could have been worse for East, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 33-16 loss to West in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. Thankfully for East, Kelvan Malepeai (who rushed for 139 yards and three touchdowns) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
