Football Preview: Estero Wildcats vs. East Lee County Jaguars
The Estero Wildcats will challenge the East Lee County Jaguars at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
East Lee County better have a healthy lead at halftime, because if last week is any indication, that's when Estero really get things going. Everything went Estero's way against Aubrey Rogers on Friday as Estero made off with a 28-7 victory.
Estero found their leader in underclassman Maddox Stewart, who threw for 261 yards and a touchdown while completing 72.2% of his passes, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. 91 of those passing yards were hauled in by Owen Maurizi.
Estero was moving up and down the field and finished the game with 404 total yards. That's the most total yards they've posted since was before the start of last season.
Estero's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged three passes before it was all said and done. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Landen Beau Brown. Michael Lau was another major factor on D, making 12 total tackles (3.0 for loss) and defending two passes.
Meanwhile, East Lee County never let their opponents score on Friday. They breezed by Gateway on the road to the tune of 43-0. Given the Jaguars' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 193rd, while the Eagles are ranked 435th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Lazaro Rogers went supernova for East Lee County, rushing for 246 yards and six touchdowns while picking up 12.9 yards per carry. Rogers really tore up the turf during one magnificent 75-yard run.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to East Lee County's defense and their six sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Noah Figueroa and Jesiah Mcknight who racked up five sacks between them. With that strong performance, Figueroa is now averaging an impressive 4 total tackles per game.
The win got Estero back to even at 1-1. As for East Lee County, their record is now 2-0.
Estero skirted past East Lee County 29-26 in their previous matchup back in September of 2023. The rematch might be a little tougher for Estero since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
