Imperial is 7-1 against Palo Verde Valley since November of 2014, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Imperial Tigers will host the Palo Verde Valley Yellow Jackets at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Imperial has four straight wins, Palo Verde Valley has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
If Imperial beats Palo Verde Valley with 48 points on Friday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two matchups with that exact score. Imperial claimed a resounding 48-7 victory over Fallbrook on the road. Fans of the Tigers have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season has ended in a blowout of 20+ point.
A big part of the win came down to the chemistry between Jayden Ayala and his top target Deren Hueso. Ayala rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns on only 12 carries while Hueso rushed for 176 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 7.7 yards per carry.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Imperial's defense and their ten sacks. Danny Esquivez led the group effort, picking up three of those sacks all by himself. With that strong performance, Samuel Ruvalcaba is now averaging an impressive 5.5 total tackles per game.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Imperial was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 315 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 216 rushing yards in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Friday just wasn't the day for Palo Verde Valley's offense. They took a blow against Coachella Valley on Friday, falling 54-0. While losing is never fun, the Yellow Jackets can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 874th, while the Mighty Arabs are ranked 322nd).
Imperial's victory bumped their record up to 4-0. As for Palo Verde Valley, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-4.
Imperial strolled past Palo Verde Valley when the teams last played back in September of 2023 by a score of 14-0. Will Imperial repeat their success, or does Palo Verde Valley have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
