Two dominant signal callers in Jett Lopez and Drew Kates are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Amarillo Sandies will square off against the Richland Royals at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Amarillo is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They took their game with ease, bagging a 45-14 victory over El Dorado.
Amarillo's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jude Dunivin, who rushed for 159 yards and a touchdown on only 15 carries, and also picked up 92 receiving yards and a touchdown. The dominant performance gave Dunivin a new career-high in rushing yards. Oliver Parsons was in the mix as well, providing Amarillo with two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Richland's offense rose to the challenge against a Yellowjackets defense that boasted an average of only 13.73 points allowed on Friday. Richland was the clear victor by a 37-16 margin over Arlington Heights. Given the Royals' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 62nd, while the Yellowjackets are ranked 245th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Kates continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 334 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 12.8 yards per attempt, and also rushing for 64 yards and two touchdowns. Another player making a difference was Jayshon Gibson, who rushed for 223 yards while picking up 10.6 yards per carry.
Richland was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 292 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Richland didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Sean Wright and Zaid Walker. Roddrick Roberts was another major factor on D, picking up 0.5 sacks and making 13 total tackles (1.0 for loss).
Amarillo has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 6-4 record this season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 46.2 points per game. As for Richland, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 9-2.
The upcoming contest will be a clash of competing strengths. Amarillo has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 157.6 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Richland has preferred to attack from the air: they average 302.8 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Saturday? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
