Flag Football Game Preview: Channel Islands Raiders vs. Santa Paula Cardinals

Two dominant signal callers in Alyssa Olmos and Angie Aguilera are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Channel Islands Raiders will look to defend their home field on Wednesday against the Santa Paula Cardinals at 7:00 p.m.

Channel Islands is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 45 points on Wednesday, they were much more limited against Huntington Beach on Saturday. They took a blow against the Oilers, falling 41-7. While losing is never fun, the Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California flag football rankings (they are ranked 174th, while the Oilers are ranked third).

Meanwhile, Santa Paula had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 30 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Wednesday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat the Flashes 35-0. The Cardinals might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won eight games by 20 points or more this season.

Santa Paula didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Natalie Herrejon and Aguilera.

Santa Paula's victory bumped their record up to 9-2. As for Channel Islands, their defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 10-8.

Channel Islands beat Santa Paula 31-18 when the teams last played back in September. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Aguilera, who rushed for 151 yards and one score on only ten carries, and also threw for 149 yards and a pair of TDs. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will the Raiders still be able to contain Aguilera? There's only one way to find out.