The Cherokee Trail Cougars will head out on the road to challenge the Arapahoe Warriors at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Cherokee Trail is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Colorado's top teams: Grandview, who was ranked 21st in their home state at the time (Cherokee Trail was ranked 24th). Cherokee Trail wound up with the same score they had in their last game (14-13), but sadly the team found themselves on the wrong side of the score this time. Despite 71 more yards than the Wolves, the Cougars couldn't convert that extra yardage to scores.
Despite the defeat, Cherokee Trail got top-tier performance from Brian Tucker, who rushed for 74 yards and two touchdowns. Brian Cusack also helped out with an impressive 141 receiving yards.
Cherokee Trail wouldn't let Grandview keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Cherokee Trail can thank Jordan Mitchell and Raul Rodriquez for forcing both of them.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Arapahoe). They blew past Smoky Hill, posting a 55-10 victory at home. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Warriors considering their seven-point performance the game before.
Trajan Frasier was nothing short of spectacular: he rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns on only eight carries. His longest rush was for an impressive 58 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. Andrew Smart did his part for the team as well, scoring a TD off of 46 receiving yards.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Arapahoe's defense and their three sacks. Leading the way was Brody Sieck with two. Arapahoe is 4-1 when Sieck posts two or more sacks, but 1-2 otherwise. Braeden Snow was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making five total tackles (4.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Arapahoe was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 322 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.
Cherokee Trail has traveled a rocky road recently having lost three of their last four matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-5 record this season. As for Arapahoe, they pushed their record up to 5-3 with the win, which was their third straight at home.
Cherokee Trail was dealt a bruising 56-7 loss at the hands of Arapahoe when the teams last played back in October of 2023. Can Cherokee Trail avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
