The Sandia Matadors will face off against the West Mesa Mustangs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Sandia is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New Mexico's top teams: Eldorado, who was ranked 12th in their home state at the time (Sandia was ranked 16th). Sandia fell to Eldorado 14-10. Having soared to a lofty 52 points in the game before, the Matadors couldn't push the score so high this time.
Meanwhile, West Mesa won a game that couldn't have been any closer, slipping by Albuquerque 21-20. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Mustangs.
The critical scores for West Mesa came from Isaiah Cazares, Jamari Phillips-Woods, and Ronnie Gilletti.
West Mesa didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Gilletti and Treyvon Sargent. Another thorn in Albuquerque's side was Eric Mcafee, who picked up two sacks and made 14 total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Sandia now has a losing record at 3-4. As for West Mesa, they now have a winning record of 4-3.
Sandia was able to grind out a solid victory over West Mesa when the teams last played back in September of 2023, winning 36-28. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was West Mesa's Elijah Brody, who rushed for 151 yards and a touchdown on only 15 carries, and also threw for 180 yards and two touchdowns. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Sandia to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
