Avalon has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will take on the Hesperia Christian Patriots at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Avalon is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat United Christian Academy 47-0. The Lancers' offense stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most points they've scored all season.
Meanwhile, Hesperia Christian had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 37.3 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Friday. They really took it to the Knights for the full four quarters, racking up an 80-42 victory. Considering the Patriots have won five games by more than 29 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Nathaniel Renner continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 168 yards and two touchdowns on only eight carries, while also throwing for 278 yards and five touchdowns on only 17 passes. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Dakota McCloud was Renner's top target, picking up 169 receiving yards and three touchdowns, while also punching in a touchdown on the ground.
Hesperia Christian didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off four passes before the game was over. Gabriel Sanchez led the group effort, picking up two of those interceptions all by himself. Noah Griffin also hauled in two receiving touchdowns, which is notable because Hesperia Christian is 4-1 when he posts at least two receiving touchdowns, but 1-3 otherwise. Hesperia Christian got some further help from Roderick Taylor: he picked up two sacks, forced a fumble, and made 13 total tackles (3.5 for loss).
Hesperia Christian was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 208 rushing yards. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their rushing yard total in three consecutive matchups.
Avalon's win bumped their record up to 4-5. As for Hesperia Christian, they now have a winning record of 5-4.
Avalon suffered a grim 48-22 defeat to Hesperia Christian when the teams last played back in November of 2022. Thankfully for Avalon, Ayden Ortega (who rushed for 192 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.3 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
