The Santa Maria Saints will be playing at home against the Pioneer Valley Panthers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
Santa Maria might've scored the first points on Friday, but it was San Luis Obispo who claimed the real prize. Santa Maria took a 38-28 hit to the loss column at the hands of San Luis Obispo.
Loss or not, Santa Maria got some senior leadership from Malachi Jordan who picked up 203 receiving yards and three touchdowns and Josue Elena who threw for 328 yards and three touchdowns while completing 78.1% of his passes. Aldo Araiza was another key contributor, rushing for 115 yards.
Meanwhile, Pioneer Valley earned a 21-14 win over Templeton on Friday.
Santa Maria's defeat was their fourth straight on the road, which dropped their overall record down to 4-5. Admittedly, the team was facing some tough opposition over that stretch, including 8-0 Atascadero (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 63.5% over those games). Pioneer Valley has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season.
Santa Maria didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Pioneer Valley in their previous meeting back in October of 2022, but they still walked away with a 15-9 win. Will Santa Maria repeat their success, or does Pioneer Valley have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
