Mater Dei has gone 10-0 against Santa Margarita recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. After each having a week off, both will dust off their jerseys to challenge one another at 7:00 p.m. Mater Dei will be coming into the matchup with an undefeated record on the line.
Mater Dei is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another highly-ranked state team: St. Frances Academy, who was ranked first at the time (Mater Dei was ranked first). Mater Dei came out on top against St. Frances Academy by a score of 25-14 last Friday. The Monarchs pushed the score to 22-0 by the end of the third, a deficit the Panthers cut but never quite recovered from.
The critical scores for Mater Dei came from Marcus Harris, Trenton Dunn, and Tomuhini Topui.
Mater Dei wouldn't let St. Frances Academy keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Nasir Wyatt was the leader in that area as all came courtesy of his dominant performance.
Meanwhile, after a string of three wins, Santa Margarita's good fortune finally ran out last Friday. They and Leuzinger were almost perfectly matched up, but Santa Margarita suffered a 14-13 defeat. Despite 156 more yards than the Olympians, the Eagles couldn't convert that extra yardage to scores.
Despite their loss, Santa Margarita saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Sean Embree Jr., who picked up 147 receiving yards, was perhaps the best of all.
Mater Dei's win was their tenth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-0. As for Santa Margarita, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-2.
Mater Dei strolled past Santa Margarita in their previous meeting back in October of 2023 by a score of 35-19. The rematch might be a little tougher for Mater Dei since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
