Cedar hasn't had much luck against Desert Hills recently, but that could start to change on Wednesday. The Cedar Reds will take on the Desert Hills Thunder at 7:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Friday, Cedar humbled Logan with a 33-3 victory. That looming 33-3 mark stands out as the most commanding margin for the Reds yet this season.
It was another big night for Caleb Paule, who rushed for 111 yards and a touchdown, and also picked up 42 receiving yards.
Cedar didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Keaton Cox and Traxton Mitchell. With that strong performance, Mitchell is now averaging an impressive 5.1 total tackles per game.
Meanwhile, Desert Hills had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 34.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat the Tigers 38-7 on the road. The Thunder might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four matches by 20 points or more this season.
A big part of Desert Hills' win came down to the chemistry between Gerritt Grondel and his top target Isaac Andresen. Grondel threw for 166 yards and two touchdowns while completing 71.4% of his passes while Andresen rushed for 180 yards and a touchdown while picking up 11.3 yards per carry.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Desert Hills was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 273 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 172 rushing yards in six consecutive matchups.
Cedar's record is now 4-5. As for Desert Hills, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a massive bump to their 5-3 record this season.
We should be in store for an exciting game as both have no problem gaining yardage. Cedar has been on an offensive roll this season, having averaged 362.7 total yards per game. However, it's not like Desert Hills struggles in that department as they've been averaging 373. With a pair of commanding offenses duking it out, the defenses are going to have their work cut out for them.
Cedar suffered a grim 42-19 defeat to Desert Hills when the teams last played back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Desert Hills' Tytan Mason, who rushed for 276 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 9.2 yards per carry. Now that Cedar knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
