After a three year absence, the Pacific View League Tri-Champion Rio Mesa Spartans (6-4) return to the C.I.F. Western Division Playoffs tonight with a home game against the PAC-7 League's strong third place team, the Arroyo Grande Eagles (8-2).
The Eagles strong defense is led by
#56 James King
Arroyo Grande has only allowed 107 points in their ten games.
The Spartans will counter with an offense that averages 411 yards of Total Offense and scores 34.5 points per game.
Rio Mesa's balanced attack (2,814 yards rushing and 1,296 yards passing) features running backs Jordan Nunnery (1,124 yds., 8.4 ave., 9 TDs), Tanner Wrout (994 yds., 9.3 ave., 10 TDs) and Marcus Alford (424 yds., 14.6 ave., 7 TDs).
Spartan QB Blair Benchwick has completed 50.7% of his passes for 1,222 yds. and 13 TDs.
#10 Arroyo Grande QB Brent Vanderveen
As would befit an 8-2 team, the Eagles are also strong on offense averaging 358.7 yards of Total Offense per game and scoring an average of 30.8 points per game.
The Eagles operate behind the blocking of a pair of behemoth offensive tackles. Their leading runner, Christian Crichton, has amassed 912 yards of the Eagle's 2,198 yards on the ground while their QBs have thrown for 1,389 yards on the season.
Although the Spartan defense appears to be the tipping point, giving up 27.2 points per game, in the last four Rio Mesa games, all victories, the Spartans have buckled down defensively allowing only 16.8 points per game. This is a vast improvement over the porous Spartan defense that gave up a whopping average of 31.8 points per game in the first six games of the campaign leading to a not so surprising 2-4 record.
The kickoff is slated for 7:00 p.m. at John Reardon Field, it should be exciting!
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