Last week three of the four area teams were on lengthy road trips with Winslow and Snowflake returning home with quality wins. Holbrook didn’t fare as well getting shut out against Sahuarita. Joseph City stayed home but saw the visitor side of the scoreboard light up with 71 points in a big loss to a very good Williams squad. This week Snowflake heads into a bye week with an impressive 4-1 record and appears to be the clear favorite to win the East region, although rivalry games with Blue Ridge and Show Low can always go either way.
This week Winslow hosts Tuba City. The Bulldogs are now 3-2 after shutting out Tanque Verde last week. In fact in their last two games Winslow has outscored Chinle and Tanque Verde by a combined 66-0. The Warriors come in at just 1-3 on the season and they were soundly defeated last week 51-12 by Bourgade Catholic. Their lone win was a 30-point win over Hopi. Winslow may not get their third consecutive shut out but they will get their third win in a row and push their season mark to 4-2 as they head into the bulk of their East Region schedule in two weeks. In their two meetings over the past two seasons, the Bulldogs have beaten Tuba City by an average of 47 points. Friday night may be a similar result.
Holbrook will travel to Window Rock on Friday night in what could be their final chance to get a victory with the East Region schedule looming in the future. The Roadrunners looked anemic on offense on Saturday against Sahuarita, and they will defiantly need to pick up their offensive output to have a chance to get a road win against the Scouts. Like Holbrook, Window Rock was on the wrong end of a big score last week losing to Paradise Honors 51-8. The Scouts gave up 327 yards on the ground in the loss and Holbrook will need to try and exploit that defense.
Holbrook hasn’t scored in their past two games. They should be able to put points on the board in this game, but will most likely fall short of their last meeting against Window Rock, which was a 56-0 Roadrunner win three years ago. Holbrook more than likely won’t get that type of win, but hopefully they can escape with their second win of the season in what could be a close game. Holbrook enters this game at 1-2, and the Scouts come in with a 2-2 season mark.
Joseph City gets the pleasure of back-to-back trips to El Capitan in consecutive years. The Wildcats will face the Eagles on the road at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29. Joseph City was handed a huge home field loss by Williams last week, but based on recent history they have a chance to get healthy this week. Their last two meetings with the Eagles have the Wildcats outscoring El Capitan 40-22 last year, and 71-22 two years ago. With the Eagles sporting just one win this far this season, look for Joseph City to return home with a solid win.
