Two dominant backs in James Branch and Ariel Medina are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The West Warwick Wizards will face off against the Woonsocket Villa Novans at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.
West Warwick is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Rhode Island's top teams: Westerly, who was ranked 11th in their home state at the time (West Warwick was ranked 14th). West Warwick fell just short of Westerly by a score of 29-26 on Friday. While the Wizards had to settle for second, they closed the game well in the third quarter, where they outscored the Bulldogs 12-8.
Meanwhile, Woonsocket had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Saturday. They never let the Quakers onto the board and left with a 23-0 victory. The result was nothing new for the Villa Novans, who have now won three matches by 23 points or more so far this season.
Woonsocket's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Medina, who rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries. Medina's longest rush was for an impressive 50 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. Patrick Munger was another key passer, throwing for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
Woonsocket was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 231 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 164 rushing yards in five consecutive matchups.
West Warwick's loss dropped their record down to 5-3. As for Woonsocket, the win got them back to even at 4-4.
West Warwick was dealt a bruising 40-6 defeat at the hands of Woonsocket when the teams last played back in October of 2019. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point West Warwick was down 33-0.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
