Palo Verde Valley and Holtville are an even 5-5 against one another since September of 2014, but not for long. The Palo Verde Valley Yellow Jackets will challenge the Holtville Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Palo Verde Valley is headed into the matchup out to prove that what happened against Calipatria on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Palo Verde Valley came up short against Calipatria, falling 44-24. The Yellow Jackets were down 38-18 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.
Meanwhile, Holtville put another one in the bag on Thursday to keep their perfect season alive. They breezed by Vincent Memorial on the road to the tune of 52-14. Fans of the Vikings have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season has ended in a blowout of 20+ points.
It was another big night for Enrique Armas, who rushed for 105 yards and two touchdowns. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 105 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Holtville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 284 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 198 rushing yards in 12 consecutive games dating back to last season.
Holtville didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Axel Gomez and Asael Miranda.
This is the second loss in a row for Palo Verde Valley and nudges their season record down to 2-7. As for Holtville, their victory was their ninth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 8-0.
Palo Verde Valley came up short against Holtville when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 20-14. Can Palo Verde Valley avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
