The Ephrata Tigers are taking a road trip to challenge the Grandview Greyhounds at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Ephrata will be strutting in after a victory while Grandview will be coming in after a loss.
Ephrata is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They put the hurt on Selah with a sharp 34-13 win on Friday. Ephrata's victory was all the more impressive since the Vikings were averaging only 14.88 points allowed on the season.
Meanwhile, there was early excitement for Grandview after they claimed the first score on Friday, but it was Tri-Cities Prep who ended up claiming the real prize. Grandview came up short against Tri-Cities Prep, falling 48-22. The Greyhounds were down 41-14 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.
Despite the defeat, Grandview got top-tier performance from Nathan Montes De Oca, who rushed for 188 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 10.4 yards per carry, and also picked up 40 receiving yards. Those 188 rushing yards gave Montes De Oca a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Dutch Graf, who rushed for 60 yards and a touchdown.
Even though they lost, Grandview was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 269 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 85.8 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last three matchups they've averaged 190.
Even if they lost, Grandview's defensive line still kept up the pressure with five sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Jos? Luis Arellano Mercado and Tucker Santjer, who racked up four sacks between them. Santjer has been hot , having also posted seven or more total tackles the last seven times he's played.
The win snapped Ephrata's losing streak at four games and leaves them with a 4-4 record. As for Grandview, they dropped their record down to 1-7 with the loss, which was their tenth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Everything came up roses for Ephrata against Grandview when the teams last played back in October of 2023, as the squad secured a 48-14 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Ephrata since the team 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
