A feisty cat fight will be fought when Cougars faces off against the Cienega Bobcats at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Casa Grande is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Desert View 63-34. The Cougars might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five games by 26 points or more this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Casa Grande to victory, but perhaps none more so than Luke Keeton, who threw for 391 yards and six touchdowns while completing 78.8% of his passes, and also rushed for 32 yards. Aveon Williams was another key player, gaining 155 total yards and four touchdowns.
Casa Grande was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 256 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
One reason for the win was Casa Grande's imposing defensive line, which managed to get into the backfield for four sacks. Lelend Cevedia was especially locked on to Desert View's QB and sacked him twice.
Meanwhile, after only seven points in their last match, Cienega made sure to put some points up on the board against Sunnyside on Friday. Cienega blew past Sunnyside 42-21. With the Bobcats ahead 35-7 at the half, the contest was all but over already.
Julian Hainley went supernova for Cienega, throwing for 222 yards and three touchdowns on only 18 passes, while also punching in two touchdowns on the ground. Hainley is becoming a predictor of Cienega's success: when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns the team is undefeated (and 0-4 when he doesn't). Another player making a difference was Jaden Rodgers, who picked up 128 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Cienega didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Kadin Thomas and Alec Anaya.
The victory made it two in a row for Casa Grande and bumps their season record up to 6-3. As for Cienega, the win got them back to even at 4-4.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Casa Grande has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 286.7 passing yards per game. Cienega, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 161.1 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Everything came up roses for Casa Grande against Cienega in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, as the team secured a 53-21 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Casa Grande since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
