The Escalante Lobos are on the road again on Friday to play the Menaul Panthers at 7:00 p.m.
Escalante is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New Mexico's top teams: Fort Sumner/House, who was ranked third in their home state at the time (Escalante was ranked 18th). Escalante had to suffer through a 60-8 loss at the hands of Fort Sumner/House. The loss continues a trend for the Lobos in their matchups with the : they've now lost four in a row.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Menaul). They blew past Cloudcroft, posting a 52-12 win. The victory was familiar territory for the Panthers who have now won three contests in a row.
Menaul's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Diego Carrillo led the charge by throwing for 459 yards and five touchdowns while completing 73.7% of his passes, and also rushing for 35 yards. Another player making a difference was Carlos Cummins, who gained 270 total yards and two touchdowns.
Menaul was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 305 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 69.2 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last three games they've averaged 195.7.
Escalante's defeat dropped their record down to 3-7. As for Menaul, their win bumped their record up to 6-3.
Escalante couldn't quite finish off Menaul in their previous matchup on October 11th and fell 37-34. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cummins, who picked up 187 receiving yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 139 yards and a touchdown on only five carries. Now that Escalante knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
