The River Ridge Royal Knights will square off against the Cypress Creek Coyotes at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (River Ridge has three straight wins, Cypress Creek has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Last Friday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, River Ridge beat Fivay 21-15. Given the Royal Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 160th, while the Falcons are ranked 322nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Matt Barton went supernova for River Ridge, picking up 91 receiving yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 66 yards and a touchdown.
River Ridge wouldn't let Fivay keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. River Ridge can thank Nicolas Rauckhorst and Jackson Wainwright for forcing both of them. Rauckhorst is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 51-12, which was the final score in Cypress Creek's tilt against Mitchell on Friday.
Cypress Creek might have lost, but man, Shaan Patel was a machine: he rushed for 85 yards and a touchdown, and also picked up 40 receiving yards and a touchdown. Patel got the majority of those rushing yards when he took off on a run and that went for an incredible 85 yards.
River Ridge's victory bumped their record up to 3-0. As for Cypress Creek, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-3.
Friday's match might be decided in the trenches. River Ridge has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 158 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Cypress Creek, though, as they've been averaging only 50.7. How will they fare against such a dominant running game?
River Ridge ended up a good deal behind Cypress Creek when the teams last played back in November of 2023, losing 31-17. Thankfully for River Ridge, Malachi Askin (who rushed for 102 yards and two touchdowns) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
