The Pojoaque Valley Elks/Elkettes will square off against the Hatch Valley Bears at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Pojoaque Valley is headed into the match out to prove that what happened against West Las Vegas last Thursday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Pojoaque Valley took a blow against West Las Vegas, falling 41-12. The Elks/Elkettes haven't had much luck with the Dons recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Despite the loss, Pojoaque Valley saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Joshua Gonzales rushed for 47 yards and two touchdowns. Gonzales has become a key player for Pojoaque Valley: the team is 3-1 when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns, but 2-4 otherwise.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Hatch Valley, who bounced back after a loss on the road two weeks ago. They breezed by Cobre to the tune of 50-0 last Friday. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Bears considering their six-point performance the matchup before.
Hatch Valley can attribute much of their success to Orrin Russell, who rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 8.8 yards per carry, and OMAR GONZALEZ, who rushed for 61 yards and two touchdowns. Russell's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 102 rushing yards.
Hatch Valley has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 6-4 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 29.3 points per game. As for Pojoaque Valley, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-5.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
