El Modena is 8-1 against El Dorado since October of 2014, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The El Modena Vanguards will head out on the road to face off against the El Dorado Golden Hawks at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Last Friday, El Modena made easy work of Esperanza and carried off a 41-20 win. Given El Modena's advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 167th, while Esperanza is ranked 383rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
El Modena relied on the efforts of Brodie Hitchens, who rushed for 75 yards and three touchdowns, and Xzavior Guess, who threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns while completing 82.1% of his passes. The team also got some help courtesy of Deron Taylor, who picked up 62 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely El Dorado's strategy against Canyon on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that El Dorado blew Canyon out of the water with a 41-0 final score. El Dorado pushed the score to 34-0 by the end of the third, a deficit Canyon had no chance of recovering from.
It was another big night for Nate Bento, who rushed for 140 yards on only ten carries, and also threw for 108 yards and two touchdowns. Bento's longest rush was for an incredible 73 yards. El Dorado also got a significant boost from J.P. Murray, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 108 yards.
Their wins lifted both teams to an identical 4-4.
Friday's game will pit two of the most dominant signal callers against one another: Guess and Bento. Guess has put up some stellar numbers this year, and currently owns excellent season averages of 159.6 passing yards and two passing touchdowns per game this season. For his part, Bento has averaged 229.6 passing yards and two passing touchdowns per game this season.
Everything came up roses for El Modena against El Dorado in their previous meeting back in October of 2022 as the team secured a 50-21 victory. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was El Dorado's Diego Soria, who rushed for 178 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.4 yards per carry. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be that much easier for El Modena to walk away with another win? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
