The Hemet Bulldogs will venture away from home to take on the Hillcrest Trojans at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Hemet comes in on six and Hillcrest on three.
Last Friday, Hemet strolled past Poly with points to spare, taking the game 40-26.
Hemet can attribute much of their success to Draven Lopez, who threw for 255 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 11.6 yards per attempt, and Drew Neal, who rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries. What's more, Lopez also racked up 72 rushing yards, the mosthe's had since back in October of 2023. A healthy portion of that aerial production (84 yards to be exact) went to Tyler Trout, who also brought in a receiving touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Hemet was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 324 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Hemet didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Lopez.
Meanwhile, Hillcrest was able to grind out a solid victory over Arlington on Friday, taking the game 35-28.
A big part of Hillcrest's win came down to the chemistry between Matthew Ramos and his top target Julian Sandoval. Ramos threw for 283 yards and four touchdowns while completing 73.9% of his passes while Sandoval picked up 185 receiving yards and three touchdowns. With that strong performance, Sandoval is now averaging an impressive 112 receiving yards per game. Louie Fajardo helped Ramos out on the ground, picking up 39 receiving yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 62 yards.
Hemet's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 6-0. As for Hillcrest, their win bumped their record up to 5-1.
Hemet didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Hillcrest in their previous meeting back in September of 2015, but they still walked away with a 28-23 victory. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Hillcrest's Demetrick Watts, who rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Hemet to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
