After having lost a blowout in their previous game against Zephyrhills, the Cypress Creek Coyotes were happy to have found some success on Friday. They enjoyed a cozy 31-17 victory over River Ridge. This was payback for Cypress Creek, who suffered a 35-25 defeat the last time these two teams met.
Cypress Creek got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Malachi Askin out in front who rushed for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Askin has been hot recently, having posted 100 or more rushing yards the last four times he's played. Shaan Patel did his part to keep the secondary busy, picking up 89 receiving yards and a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Cypress Creek's defense and their four sacks. In that department, David Kirk was the leader with three sacks.
Despite the loss, River Ridge still got an impressive performance from Matt Barton, who rushed for 142 yards while picking up 7.5 yards per carry.
Cypress Creek pushed their record up to 9-2 with that victory, which was their fifth straight on the road. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 0-10 Hollins and 1-9 Wesley Chapel (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 37.3% over those games). As for River Ridge, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 4-7.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Cypress Creek will take on Zephyrhills at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. As for River Ridge, they will head out on the road to face off against Vanguard at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Vanguard presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than River Ridge in Florida (Vanguard is ranked 50th, while River Ridge is ranked 301st).
