Football Preview: South Spartans vs. Independence Falcons
The South Spartans will look to take advantage of their home-field for the first time this season as they take on the Independence Falcons at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
South is coming home in high spirits after they had to open their season on the road against Ridgeview. South never let Ridgeview onto the board and left with a 21-0 victory on Thursday.
The critical scores for South came from Josh Encinas, Marvin Parra, and David Gonzalez.
South was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 205 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Ridgeview only rushed for 73.
One reason for the win was South's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for three sacks. Leading the way was Brandon Burrell and his 2.5.
Meanwhile, Independence came into Friday's contest having lost three straight, but that streak is now in the rearview. Everything went their way against Pioneer Valley on Friday as Independence made off with a 35-14 win.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Independence to victory, but perhaps none more so than Gunter Golla Iii, who rushed for 38 yards and a touchdown, and also threw for 162 yards and a touchdown while completing 75% of his passes. Another back making a difference was Rickey Johnson, who gained 117 total yards and a touchdown.
Things could have been worse for South, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 35-20 loss to Independence in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Independence's Diego Hernandez, who rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries, and also threw for 114 yards and two touchdowns while completing 77.8% of his passes. Now that South knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
