Two dominant signal callers in Alexis Eley and Lilah Barton are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Highland Hawks will square off against the Gilbert Tigers at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Highland comes in on four and Gilbert on six.
Highland is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Desert Ridge, who was ranked 21st in their home state at the time (Highland was ranked fifth). Highland walked away with a 24-14 victory over Desert Ridge on Tuesday.
Eley was her usual excellent self, throwing for 219 yards and two touchdowns while completing 78% of her passes, and also rushing for 75 yards and a touchdown. Those 75 rushing yards gave her a new career-high.
Highland's defense stepped up as well, laying out the QB three times. Kylie Riggs was especially locked on to Desert Ridge's QB and sacked her twice. Riggs is on a roll when it comes to sacks, as she's now posted two or more in the last four games she's played.
Meanwhile, Gilbert strolled past Higley with points to spare on Tuesday, taking the game 29-12.
A big part of Gilbert's win came down to the chemistry between Barton and her top target Jalyssa Guerrero. Barton threw for 240 yards and three touchdowns while Guerrero gained 78 total yards and two touchdowns.
Gilbert didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Brylee Gaylord and Guerrero.
Gilbert is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 9-3 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 7.3 points per game. As for Highland, their victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-3.
Everything came up roses for Highland against Gilbert when the teams last played back in September of 2023, as the squad secured a 35-7 win. In that contest, Highland amassed a halftime lead of 21-0, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Thursday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
