The Chaparral Pumas are taking a road trip to face off against the Mission Viejo Diablos at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are still undefeated (Chaparral has four wins , while Mission Viejo has 13 dating back to last season).
Chaparral's defense heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Great Oak 42-0 on the road. Given the Pumas' advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 22nd, while the Wolfpack are ranked 299th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
A big part of Chaparral's win came down to the chemistry between Dane Weber and his top target Caden "CB" Butler. Weber threw for 224 yards and three touchdowns while completing 84.2% of his passes while Butler picked up 125 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Weber has been hot recently, having posted three or more passing touchdowns the last three times he's played. Jayce Venable was in the mix too, providing Chaparral with two touchdowns.
Chaparral wouldn't let Great Oak keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Chaparral can thank Shane Klingelberg and Corbin Frutos for forcing both of them. Klingelberg also set a new season high mark in total tackles with ten.
Meanwhile, Mission Viejo's offense rose to the challenge against a Bears defense that boasted an average of only 14.75 points allowed on Friday. Mission Viejo skirted past Basha 31-28. The 31-point effort marked the Diablos' lowest-scoring match of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Drai Trudeau had a dynamite game for Mission Viejo, throwing for 131 yards and four touchdowns. The team also got some help courtesy of Davonte Curtis, who rushed for 98 yards.
Another reason for the win was Mission Viejo's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for seven sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Jaden Williams and Carter Wegis, who racked up five sacks between them.
Chaparral's victory bumped their record up to 4-0. As for Mission Viejo, their win was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 5-0.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Chaparral has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 157 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Mission Viejo has preferred to attack from the air: they average 276.8 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Chaparral suffered a grim 31-11 defeat to Mission Viejo when the teams last played back in October of 2014. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Chaparral was down 24-3.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
