Two dominant backs in Sam Pehrson and Vaughn Gritzmacher are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Murray Spartans will square off against the Tooele Buffaloes at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Murray is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 45-7 victory over Hillcrest on the road. Considering the Spartans have won three matchups by more than 20 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Pehrson was his usual excellent self, rushing for 202 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 8.8 yards per carry. He is on a roll when it comes to rushing touchdowns, as he's now punched in two or more in the last four games he's played dating back to last season. Evan Talbot was another key player, picking up 132 receiving yards and a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Murray's defense and their three sacks. Tyler Wightman was especially locked on to Hillcrest's QB and sacked him twice. Wightman also set a new season high mark in total tackles with ten.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Murray was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 298 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, a well-balanced attack led Tooele over Jordan in every quarter on their way to victory on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Tooele blew Jordan out of the water with a 42-7 final score. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Buffaloes had established a 28 point advantage.
Gritzmacher continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 261 yards and three touchdowns on only 12 carries. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Gus Pater was in the mix as well, providing Tooele with two touchdowns.
Tooele's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged three passes before it was all said and done. It was truly a group effort as Grady Symonds, Ryan Durfey, and Nicholas Arrellano picked up one apiece.
The win made it two in a row for Murray and bumps their season record up to 4-3. As for Tooele, the victory (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 4-3.
Murray was taken down by Tooele 49-14 in their previous matchup back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Gritzmacher, who rushed for 92 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries, and also picked up 70 receiving yards and a touchdown. Now that Murray knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
