The Palo Verde Valley Yellow Jackets are taking a road trip to challenge the Coachella Valley Mighty Arabs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Palo Verde Valley is looking for their season?s first win.
Last Friday, Palo Verde Valley was beaten by Gila Ridge 49-14. While losing is never fun, the Yellow Jackets can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' football rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 876th in California, while the Hawks are ranked 168th in Arizona).
Despite the loss, Palo Verde Valley got top-tier performance from Kenneth Salazar, who rushed for 194 yards and two touchdowns on only 15 carries. With that strong performance, Salazar is now averaging an impressive 128.7 rushing yards per game.
Even though they lost, Palo Verde Valley was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 246 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 154 rushing yards in 13 consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Coachella Valley, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Saturday. They blew past Eldorado 48-18 at home on Friday. The game was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Mighty Arabs had established a 29 point advantage.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Coachella Valley to victory, but perhaps none more so than Aaron Ramirez, who rushed for 63 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries, and also picked up 80 receiving yards and a touchdown. Ramirez got the majority of those receiving yards when he pulled down a pass and took off for a gain of 80 yards. Another player making a difference was Miguel Rodriguez, who picked up 150 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Palo Verde Valley's defeat dropped their record down to 0-3. As for Coachella Valley, they pushed their record up to 2-1 with that victory, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season.
Palo Verde Valley suffered a grim 41-21 defeat to Coachella Valley in their previous matchup back in August of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Ramirez, who rushed for 267 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 15.7 yards per carry. Now that Palo Verde Valley knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
