Desert Empire Top Player Performances of the Week
Congratulations to this week's top players! We're covering the best performances from Friday's football action (using all statistics entered as of the time of writing). Enjoy!
Palm Springs Gets a Boost from Rapolla in 31-16 Loss
Starting off the list is Palm Springs's Koa Rapolla, who we judged to be the best player in the league this week. Rapolla made 16 total tackles (1.0 for loss) and defended a pass.
Palm Springs' defeat ended a five-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 3-3. Rapolla and Palm Springs will face off against Shadow Hills at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Gamescore: 43.93
Underclassman James Madden Ruberg Comes Up Big Against Palm Springs
Underclassman James Madden Ruberg came into Friday's match looking to prove himself and that's exactly what he did. He did his part (and then some), rushing for 268 yards while picking up 10.3 yards per carry for the 'W'. He showed off some serious burst, cutting through the defense on one rush that went for 65 yards.
La Quinta pushed their record up to 5-1 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. Ruberg and La Quinta will get to enjoy the win for a while: their next game is against Rancho Mirage at 7:00 p.m. on October 18th.
Gamescore: 43.20
Jeremiah Williams Crosses Big Stat Threshold
Winning always takes teamwork, but on Friday Jeremiah Williams stepped things up a notch to give Rancho Mirage the 'W'. Williams showed up in a big way, rushing for 144 yards and two touchdowns. The performance once again pushed his average rushing yardage north of 100 yards per game (103).
For the season, Williams has run in 5 touchdowns while averaging 103 rushing yards per game. He is looking even better than he did last year: after six games last season, he was only averaging 64.83 rushing yards per game.
Gamescore: 33.88
Pedro Trujillo Delivers Best Effort of Season
Sadly, Pedro Trujillo posting his best game of the season wasn't enough to lead Shadow Hills over Rancho Mirage on Friday. Trujillo threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns while completing 78.1% of his passes, and also rushed for 76 yards, good enough to set a new career-high in rushing yards in the process.
For the year, Trujillo has thrown 6 touchdowns while averaging 149.3 passing yards per game. That doesn't tell the whole story though: at this point last year, he was only averaging 38.9 passer rating per game. This year he is averaging 79.93 passer rating.
Gamescore: 32.73
Jackson Wilson Turns in Season-Best Performance
Palm Desert was led to victory by Jackson Wilson, who turned in his biggest game of the season on Friday. Wilson rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns. He has become a key player for Palm Desert: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns, but 1-2 otherwise.
The victory got Palm Desert back to even at 3-3. Wilson will try to repeat (or improve) on that dominant effort when he faces off against Rancho Mirage on Friday.
Gamescore: 31.87
Other Notable Players
- Brandon Peffers: 87 yards receiving, 2 TDs (Gamescore: 24.12)
- Sebastian Osorio: 13 total tackles (Gamescore: 22.65)
- Duran Gabriel: 2 sacks, 9 total tackles, and 1 forced fumble (Gamescore: 21.00)
- Francisco Franco: 1 interception and 9 total tackles (1.0 for loss) (Gamescore: 19.75)
- Donte Winfrey: 13 total tackles (Gamescore: 18.00)
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
