The St. Joseph Jayhawks will take on the Water Canyon Wildcats at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully St. Joseph focused on turnovers this week as the team gave up four on Friday.
St. Joseph is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Utah's top teams: Monticello, who was ranked first in their home state at the time (St. Joseph was ranked third). St. Joseph was outmatched by Monticello on the road and fell 49-12. The Jayhawks were red-hot offensively headed into the game (they scored no less than 31 points in the three matches prior) but the Buckaroo's defense proved too tough.
Meanwhile, Water Canyon came into Friday's matchup having lost four straight, but that streak is now in the rearview. They blew past Whitehorse 52-20 at home on Friday. Considering the Wildcats have won three contests by more than 31 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Water Canyon wouldn't let Whitehorse keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Water Canyon can thank Domanik La Corti and Daniel Cox for forcing both of them. Water Canyon got some further help from Zach Keate: he picked up two sacks and made five total tackles (4.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Water Canyon was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 258 rushing yards. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved they're rushing yard total in four consecutive games.
The defeat snapped St. Joseph's winning streak at three games and leaves them with a 5-2 record. As for Water Canyon, their win ended a four-game drought at home and bumped them up to 3-5.
Friday's match might be decided in the on the ground. St. Joseph has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 193.9 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Water Canyon struggles in that department as they've been averaging 200.8. It's looking like Friday's matchup might have some serious battles in the trenches.
St. Joseph suffered a grim 50-30 defeat to Water Canyon when the teams last played back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Water Canyon's Kylen Brown, who rushed for 103 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries. Now that St. Joseph 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
