Football Preview: Casa Grande Gauchos vs. Napa Grizzlies
The Casa Grande Gauchos will square off against the Napa Grizzlies at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Casa Grande knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 31 points or more in their past three contests -- so hopefully Napa likes a good challenge.
Casa Grande will head into Friday's match out to bounce back: they came back down to earth on Friday after soaring to a 21-point game in their last game. They fell just short of San Marin by a score of 39-37. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game two weeks ago (34), the Gauchos still had to take the loss.
Defeat or not, Casa Grande got some senior leadership from Enzo Murray and Danny Mercado. Murray gained 130 total yards and four touchdowns, while Mercado threw for 271 yards and two touchdowns while completing 81.5% of his passes. The dominant performance also gave Murray a new career-high in rushing yards.
Even though they lost, Casa Grande was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 218 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 163 rushing yards in eight consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Even if they lost, Casa Grande's defensive line still kept up the pressure with six sacks. San Marin's QB won't forget William Zell anytime soon given he sacked him three times. Zell is also crushing it when it comes to total tackles: he's made at least five every time he's taken the field this season.
Meanwhile, Napa was not able to break out of their rough patch two weeks ago as the team picked up their ninth straight loss dating back to last season. They took a blow against Montgomery, falling 28-0.
Casa Grande's defeat dropped their record down to 2-2. As for Napa, their loss dropped their record down to 0-3.
Everything came up roses for Casa Grande against Napa in their previous matchup back in September of 2023, as the team secured a 38-0 win. Does Casa Grande have another victory up their sleeve, or will Napa turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
