It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Oak Ridge had no problem doing just that on Friday. Their defense stepped up to hand the Turlock Bulldogs a 26-0 shutout. The result was nothing new for the Trojans, who have now won six matchups by 20 points or more so far this season.
A big part of Oak Ridge's victory came down to the chemistry between Joaquin Graves-Mercado and his top target Issac Pierce. Graves-Mercado threw for 160 yards and two touchdowns while Pierce picked up 74 receiving yards and a touchdown. What's more, Pierce also racked up 20 rushing yards, the most he's had since back in August.
Oak Ridge has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine contests, which provided a nice bump to their 8-4 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 34.4 points per game. As for Turlock, they moved to 9-4 with that loss, which also ended their eight-game winning streak.
Oak Ridge will challenge Folsom at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Folsom sitting on ten straight wins and Oak Ridge on six. Turlock does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
