The Canyon Cougars will square off against the Johnson Jaguars at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Friday, Canyon blew past Eagle Pass, posting a 35-7 win on the road. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 278th, while the Eagles are ranked 567th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Johnson). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat San Marcos 49-19 at home. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Jaguars had established a 22 point advantage.
It was another big night for Kael Hatnot, who rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns on only nine carries, and also caught a touchdown. The bulk of those rushing yards came from one huge play: a run that gained an incredible 69 yards. Another player making a difference was Zachary Isaak, who rushed for 66 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Johnson was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 361 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 206 rushing yards in five consecutive matches.
The victory got Canyon back to even at 2-2. As for Johnson, their win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 4-1.
Things could have been worse for Canyon, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 44-27 loss to Johnson in their previous matchup back in November of 2021. Thankfully for Canyon, Jesse Medina Iii (who rushed for 119 yards and four touchdowns on only 15 carries, and also threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns while completing 73.3% of his passes) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
