Anaheim hasn't had much luck against Western recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Anaheim Colonists will take on the Western Pioneers at 7:00 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: both posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Anaheim is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They took their match at home on Friday with ease, bagging a 53-18 victory over Savanna. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest win of the season.
Eduardo Guardado went supernova for Anaheim, rushing for 191 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 7.3 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave Guardado a new career-high in rushing yards. Jason Garrett was another key player, rushing for 15 yards and three touchdowns.
Anaheim's defense stepped up as well, laying out the QB seven times. Leiden Sisifo was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up three sackshimself. Those three sacks set a new season-high mark for him.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Anaheim was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 206 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Western, who bounced back after a loss on the road on September 6th. They took down Banning 53-35 two weeks ago. The Pioneers pushed the score to 41-21 by the end of the third, a deficit the Pilots cut but never quite recovered from.
Jj Amezcua was his usual excellent self, picking up 149 receiving yards and three touchdowns. His receiving production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 149 receiving yards dating back to last season.
The victory made it two in a row for Anaheim and bumps their season record up to 3-1. As for Western, their win was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 2-2.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Anaheim has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 179 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Western has preferred to attack from the air: they average 295.2 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Anaheim was dealt a bruising 54-0 defeat at the hands of Western in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. Can Anaheim 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
