Football Preview: Sunrise Mountain Mustangs vs. Verrado Vipers
The Sunrise Mountain Mustangs will play host again on Friday to welcome the Verrado Vipers, where kickoff is scheduled at 7:00 p.m. Both are strolling into their contests after big wins in their previous games.
Sunrise Mountain is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They took their game at home on Friday with ease, bagging a 45-7 victory over West Point.
Nicholas Bombaci had a dynamite game for Sunrise Mountain, rushing for 159 yards and three touchdowns on only 15 carries, while also picking up 31 receiving yards. The dominant performance gave Bombaci a new career-high in rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Logan Russell, who picked up 100 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Sunrise Mountain was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 216 rushing yards. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved they're rushing yard total in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Verrado had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 41 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They breezed by the Eagles on the road to the tune of 55-7. The Vipers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three matchups by 39 points or more this season.
Verrado's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Chase Gieszler, who threw for 100 yards and two touchdowns while completing 71.4% of his passes, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. Caden Gingg was another key player, picking up 129 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Verrado's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged two passes before it was all said and done. The picks came courtesy of Blake Bliss and Mateo Sowden. Sowden also set a new season high mark in total tackles with eight.
Sunrise Mountain's win bumped their record up to 2-3. As for Verrado, their victory bumped their record up to 3-1.
Sunrise Mountain strolled past Verrado when the teams last played back in September of 2023 by a score of 39-20. Will Sunrise Mountain repeat their success, or does Verrado have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
