The St. Paul Buckaroos will square off against the Heppner Mustangs at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as St. Paul comes in on three and Heppner on 11.
St. Paul is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. Everything went their way against Clatskanie as they made off with a 36-16 victory. Considering the Buckaroos have won seven games by more than 19 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Meanwhile, Heppner faced Lowell in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Saturday. The Mustangs simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat the Devils 46-0. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Mustangs had established a 38-point advantage.
Heppner's win came from a few key players St. Paul will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Keaton Coiner, who picked up 135 receiving yards and two touchdowns. That's the most receiving touchdowns he has posted since back in October of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Alakae Rodriguez, who rushed for 78 yards and a pair of scores.
Heppner was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 307 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 170 rushing yards in 12 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
One reason for the win was Heppner's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for three sacks. Owen Guerra was especially locked on to Lowell's QB and sacked him twice. Guerra has been hot recently, having also posted five or more total tackles the last three times he's played.
St. Paul's record now sits at 7-2. As for Heppner, their record is now 11-0.
St. Paul came up short against Heppner in their previous matchup back in September, falling 30-26. Can the Buckaroos avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
