Football Preview: Manzano Monarchs vs. Valencia Jaguars
The Manzano Monarchs will head out on the road to challenge the Valencia Jaguars at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Manzano is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 40 points per game this season.
Manzano is probably headed into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder considering Albuquerque Academy just ended the team's five-game winning streak on Saturday. They were outmatched by the Chargers on the road and fell 57-26. The match marked the Monarchs' lowest-scoring contest so far this season.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Aiden Erickson, who picked up 131 receiving yards and a touchdown. Manzano is undefeated when Erickson posts 80 or more receiving yards, but 1-2 otherwise. James Vautier also helped out by tossing the rock for 294 yards.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Valencia, who bounced back after a loss on the road back in September. They came out on top against Chaparral by a score of 52-44 last Friday.
Aidan Harrington went supernova for Valencia, rushing for 102 yards and a touchdown, while also throwing for 104 yards and a touchdown while completing 85.7% of his passes. That's the most rushing yards Harrington has posted since back in August of 2023.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Valencia was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 432 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 186 rushing yards in four consecutive games.
Manzano's defeat dropped their record down to 5-2. As for Valencia, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
