The Santa Ynez Pirates will square off against the San Luis Obispo Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Santa Ynez is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Pioneer Valley 54-26 at home on Friday. With that win, the Pirates brought their scoring average up to 27 points per game.
Griffin Bruner was nothing short of spectacular: he rushed for 130 yards and two touchdowns on only 14 carries. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Jude Pritchard, who rushed for 66 yards and four touchdowns on only eight carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Santa Ynez was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 262 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 255 rushing yards in three consecutive matchups.
One reason for the win was Santa Ynez's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for six sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Ben Flores and Javier Nungaray, who racked up four sacks between them.
Meanwhile, San Luis Obispo had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 19.3 points) and they went ahead and made it five on Friday. Their defense stepped up to hand the Eagles a 21-0 shutout.
Jace Gomes and Colbin Garrison were among the main playmakers for San Luis Obispo as the former rushed for 92 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries and the latter rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown. Gomes is on a roll when it comes to rushing touchdowns, as he's now punched in two or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season.
Santa Ynez's victory bumped their record up to 3-5. As for San Luis Obispo, their win bumped their record up to 7-1.
Friday's game might be decided in the on the ground. Santa Ynez has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 178.8 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like San Luis Obispo struggles in that department as they've been averaging 210.2. It's looking like Friday's contest might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Santa Ynez suffered a grim 36-13 defeat to San Luis Obispo in their previous meeting back in September of 2019. Thankfully for Santa Ynez, Emilio Corona (who threw for 235 yards and four touchdowns, and also rushed for 68 yards and a touchdown on only six carries) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
