After having lost a blowout in their previous game against Mountain Pointe, Maricopa was happy to have turned things around on Friday. They breezed past the Empire Ravens to the tune of 35-7. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Rams considering their eight-point performance the matchup before.
A big part of Maricopa's win came down to the chemistry between Jose Cardona Jr and his top target Matt Barnett. Cardona Jr threw for 302 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 12.6 yards per attempt while Barnett picked up 171 receiving yards and a pair of scores. Barnett really caught the secondary sleeping when he pulled down a catch that went for 84 yards. Khaleb Johnson helped Cardona Jr out on the ground, rushing for 67 yards and one TD on only nine carries.
Maricopa's run defense was locked in: Empire could only muster 1.2 yards per carry. The team can thank Clayton Neal for the heroic effort on defense: he. Maricopa's ground attack was stronger, having averaged 3.8.
Maricopa didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Fabian Marrufo and Luke Jackson.
The victory got Maricopa back to even at 1-1. As for Empire, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 0-2.
Maricopa has already played their next contest, a 34-20 win against Casa Grande on the 11th. As for Empire, they will head out on the road to take on St. Mary's at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
