The Norco Cougars will head out on the road to square off against the Chaparral Pumas at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Norco will be strutting in after a victory while Chaparral will be coming in after a defeat.
Norco took a loss when they played away from home two weeks ago, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They breezed by Roosevelt at home to the tune of 49-7. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 90th, while the Mustangs are ranked 212th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Norco to victory, but perhaps none more so than Joseph Stoffel, who rushed for 93 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries, and also threw for 96 yards and a touchdown while completing 71.4% of his passes. Those 93 rushing yards gave Stoffel a new career-high. Another rusher making a difference was Trevor Schneider, who rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Norco was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 328 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 199 rushing yards in four consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Chaparral entered their matchup against Murrieta Valley on Friday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. Chaparral was dealt a 56-22 loss at the hands of Murrieta Valley. The Pumas were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 28-3.
Norco has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a massive bump to their 3-4 record this season. As for Chaparral, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-2.
Norco came up short against Chaparral when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 17-13. Can Norco avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
