The Redwood varsity football team enters its bye week 4-0, with six more games to go. What are the Rangers’ next six opponents looking like? 

By: Jacob Serrato and Luis Flores 

Friday, September 11th, 26, the Rangers struck again, this time with a 30-14 win over the Lemoore Tigers on the road.

Last week was their bye week; they entered 4-0 with six games left on the schedule. In that span of games, excluding the Mt.Whitney game, the next five games will be league games beginning with CVC and ending with Golden West.  

9/25 @ Central Valley Christian, 10/2 vs Tulare Union, 10/9 vs Tulare Western, 10/15 @ Hanford, 10/23 vs Golden West, and 10/30 @ Mt. Whitney. 

The East Yosemite League division title is seemingly still up in the air; each team has a chance to gain control. But three teams remain undefeated: Tulare Western, Hanford, and Redwood. 

Central Valley Christian is the Rangers’ next opponent and has had a rough stretch of games together; their first four opponents combined have a record of 13-2, their starting defense has given up 30 points per game, and the offense has stalled at only 12.75 points per game.

Tulare Union could be the sneaky team to watch, as they come in 2-1. They have a solid ground and passing game, but can their defense keep up with all of this pace?

Tulare Western is arguably the biggest threat to the Rangers. This is a team that has the highest-scoring offense led by Quarterback Juju Hernandez; they average 56 points per game, 126 rushing yards a game, 445 receiving yards a game, and 8 total touchdowns a game.

Hanford, they can be a sneaky team here and there, but the games tend to be close; Hanford has won by only one possession before. Against teams like Redwood and Western, they are gonna need that offense to click when the time is right to stay ahead.

Golden West started with two straight wins, one of them due to a forfeit, the other a dominant win, but since then, a close loss to Dinuba and a loss to Mt. Whitney.

Their offense, led by quarterback Jayden Najera, is a gunslinging QB and is not afraid to let the pigskin fly through the air. But the defense has allowed 29.75 points per game.

Mt. Whitney will be the final game of the regular season. Whitney is a very low-scoring team, only managing 12 points per game and a defense that gives up 27.25 points a game. 

Then the Rangers, 32.5 points a game and a solid offense led by Quarterback Nash McElree, which they can go toe to toe with Tulare Western, but there’s another side of the ball, and that’s the defense.

A defense that doesn’t get as much spotlight as they should. This unit has only allowed 7 points per game and is the number 1-ranked defense in all of Tulare County.

Their ability to bring pressure, stop the run, and lock down the secondary is unreal, and it’s a big reason for this team’s success.

These games decide everything from playoff seeding and division titles to bragging rights.

The Rangers will have to put everything out on the gridiron, six games with one goal: a 10-0 perfect regular season. 

Jacob Serrato
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Jacob Serrato is a senior and first year sports writer for the Redwood Gigantea, he is beyond thrilled to be apart of the Gigantea and to cover Redwood sports all year long.

Luis Flores
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Luis Flores is a freshman that is apart of Redwood Gigantea, he loves to write about sports topics and can't wait to write plenty of stories and cover every sport of Redwood.

 

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