The River Road Wildcats will venture away from home to challenge the Lamesa Tornadoes at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: River Road has struggled recently with three losses in a row, while Lamesa will arrive with three straight victories.
River Road's offense might be in the hot seat on Thursday considering what happened against Bushland on Friday. They were dealt a 55-0 defeat at the hands of the Falcons. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 853rd, while the Falcons are ranked 172nd).
Meanwhile, Lamesa hadn't done well against Denver City recently (they were 0-4 in their previous four matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. Lamesa managed a 33-29 win over Denver City.
Lamesa's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Benito Barrioz led the charge by rushing for 149 yards and a touchdown. Barrioz's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 100 rushing yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Deev Lugo, who rushed for 94 yards and a touchdown on only six carries.
Lamesa didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Hector Zamora and Xavier Zorola. Zorola has become a key player for Lamesa: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least one interception, but 2-5 otherwise.
River Road's loss dropped their record down to 4-6. As for Lamesa, their victory bumped their record up to an identical 4-6.
Thursday's matchup might be decided in the on the ground. River Road has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 252.8 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Lamesa struggles in that department as they've been averaging 158.3. It's looking like Thursday's contest might have some serious battles in the trenches.
River Road won a match that couldn't have been any closer in their previous meeting back in October, slipping by Lamesa 35-34. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Barrioz, who rushed for 186 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 7.2 yards per carry. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will River Road still be able to contain Barrioz? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
