Western hasn't had much luck against Tustin recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Western Pioneers will welcome the Tustin Tillers at 7:00 p.m. Western is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 38.6 points per game this season.
Last Thursday, Western didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Cypress, but they still walked away with a 28-22 victory.
Makhai Hayes was a one-man wrecking crew for Western as he rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries. Hayes really tore up the turf during one magnificent 83-yard run. The team also got some help courtesy of Jj Amezcua, who picked up 96 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Western was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 217 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Cypress only rushed for 88.
Meanwhile, Tustin had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They snuck past the Vanguards with a 34-28 win.
Eimesse Essis continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 293 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.9 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Ayden Edwards was another key player, throwing for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Tustin's defense and their seven sacks. El Modena's QB won't forget Taven Epps anytime soon given he sacked him twice.
The victory got Western back to even at 4-4. As for Tustin, they pushed their record up to 7-1 with the win, which was their tenth straight on the road dating back to last season.
The upcoming match will be a clash of competing strengths. Western has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 278.4 passing yards per game. Tustin, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 224.9 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Western was taken down by Tustin 63-27 when the teams last played back in October of 2017. Thankfully for Western, Kc Carr 3Rd (who rushed for 297 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 15.6 yards per carry) 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
