Football Preview: Walnut Mustangs vs. Diamond Bar Brahmas
Walnut has been on the road for two straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. They will host the Diamond Bar Brahmas at 7:00 p.m.
Walnut's offense might be in the hot seat on Friday considering what happened against Los Altos on Friday. They were outmatched by the Conquerors on the road and fell 38-0. The game marked the first time this season in which the Mustangs were not able to get on the board.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Diamond Bar). They simply couldn't be stopped on Thursday as they easily beat Chino 55-28. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest victory the Brahmas have posted since October 27, 2023.
Diamond Bar can attribute much of their success to Quinton Mendoza, who threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 13.2 yards per attempt. 138 of those passing yards were hauled in by Collin Pearce.
Diamond Bar was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 235 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 89 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last three matches they've averaged 219.3.
Diamond Bar didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Pearce.
Walnut's defeat was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 4-5. As for Diamond Bar, their win ended a six-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 2-7.
Walnut might still be hurting after the 35-12 loss they got from Diamond Bar in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Mendoza, who threw for 213 yards and two touchdowns while completing 73.3% of his passes. Now that Walnut 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
