The La Center Wildcats will be playing at home against the Elma Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (La Center has nine straight victories, Elma has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
La Center was not the first on the board last Friday, but they got there more often. They enjoyed a cozy 34-17 victory over Castle Rock. La Center pushed the score to 34-3 by the end of the third, a deficit Castle Rock cut but never quite recovered from.
Jalen Ward went supernova for La Center, rushing for 138 yards and three touchdowns on only 13 carries. Houston Coyle was another key contributor, throwing for 202 yards and a touchdown while completing 73.1% of his passes.
Meanwhile, Elma fell victim to Montesano's stalwart defense on Friday and couldn't make it onto the board. They were beaten by the Bulldogs 49-0. While losing is never fun, Elma can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Washington football rankings (they are ranked 217th, while Montesano is ranked 54th).
La Center's win was their ninth straight on the road (dating back to last season), which bumped their overall record up to 9-0. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 30.6 points per game. As for Elma, they now have a losing record at 4-5.
Everything came up roses for La Center against Elma in their previous meeting back in November of 2019 as the squad secured a 42-14 victory. Will La Center repeat their success, or does Elma have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
