Football Preview: Central Spartans vs. Imperial Tigers
Central has gone 8-2 against Imperial recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Central Spartans will head out to face off against the Imperial Tigers at 7:00 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: both posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Central is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They were the clear victor by a 42-20 margin over Cibola on Friday. Considering the Spartans have won three matches by more than 19 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Meanwhile, Imperial put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They secured a 52-47 W over Valley Center. The defensive woes were uncharacteristic for the Tigers, who until this matchup were averaging 14.67 points allowed.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Imperial to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jayden Ayala, who threw for 344 yards and five touchdowns while completing 87.5% of his passes. Deren Hueso was Ayala's top target, rushing for 145 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries, while also picking up 89 receiving yards and a touchdown.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Imperial was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 277 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 168 rushing yards in six consecutive contests.
The victory made it two in a row for Central and bumps their season record up to 5-1. As for Imperial, their win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 6-0.
Central didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Imperial when the teams last played back in October of 2023, but they still walked away with a 14-10 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Central 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
