Football Preview: Oak Park Eagles vs. Ventura Cougars
Oak Park has won three straight games at home, while Ventura has won three straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Friday. The Oak Park Eagles will host the Ventura Cougars at 7:00 p.m. The two teams are strolling into their matches after big wins in their previous games.
Last Friday, Oak Park was fully in charge, breezing past Buena 41-7 on the road. Considering the Eagles have won four games by more than 24 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Tillman Lovett continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 298 yards and four touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes. Nico Mastrippolito was Lovett's top target, picking up 124 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Another reason for the win was Oak Park's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for four sacks. In that department, Isaac Thomas was the leader with two. He is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made seven or more in the last four games he's played dating back to last season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Oak Park was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 242 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Buena only rushed for 87.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Ventura). They blew past Royal, posting a 49-14 victory at home. With that win, the Cougars brought their scoring average up to 26.6 points per game.
A big part of Ventura's victory came down to the chemistry between Derek Garcia and his top target Josh Woodworth. Garcia threw for 198 yards and three touchdowns while Woodworth picked up 120 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Ventura is undefeated when Woodworth posts two or more receiving touchdowns, but 1-3 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Gage Kushner, who rushed for 60 yards and two touchdowns.
Ventura didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Cristiano Alvarez and Myles Russell.
Oak Park's win bumped their record up to 6-2. As for Ventura, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season.
Friday's contest might be decided in the trenches. Oak Park has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 162.6 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Ventura, though, as they've been averaging only 89.2. How will they fare against such a dominant running game? Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
