Preview: South Salem Saxons vs. Tigard Tigers
The South Salem Saxons will be playing at home against the Tigard Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (South Salem has nine straight victories, Tigard has five straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
South Salem can now show off eight landslide victories after their most recent game on Friday. They took their match at home with ease, bagging a 54-0 victory over North Salem. Given South Salem's advantage in MaxPreps' Oregon football rankings (they are ranked fifth, while North Salem is ranked 38th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Athan Palmateer was on fire: he threw for 425 yards and three touchdowns while completing 91.4% of his passes, and also punched in two touchdowns on the ground. Another player making a difference was Esteban Mendez, who picked up 161 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Another reason for the win was South Salem's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for four sacks. Leading the way was Divine Ibe and his two sacks.
Meanwhile, Tigard suffered a tough 27-3 defeat at the hands of Tualatin on Friday.
South Salem's victory was their sixth straight at home (dating back to last season), bumping their overall record up to 9-0. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 0-9 McNary and 2-7 Roseburg (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 38.7% over those games). As for Tigard, they now have a losing record at 4-5.
