Football Week Nine Preview

SAN MARCOS, CA (11/5/2019) – Palomar travels to Cerritos College this week for their final road game of the season. The Comets are coming off a 38-20 loss to El Camino.

The Comets average 382.9 yards a game, 288.8 passing and 94.1 rushing yards. Defensively, Palomar allows 355.5 total yards, 194.3 passing and 161.1 rushing. Cerritos averages 386.3 total offensive yards, 233.8 passing and 152.5 rushing. Their defense allows 362.1 yards, 252.9 passing and 109.3 rushing.

Palomar had their second-best rushing game last week when they put up 127 yards, 78 of them were from quarterback Rodney Thompson who has shown his versatility as a passer and a runner this season. The Comets put up only 174 passing yards, a season low. Cerritos put up 254 rushing yards last week against Mt. San Antonio College and 152 passing yards.

Cerritos quarterback No. 15 TJ McMahon has 1787 passing yards on the season and a completion rate of 64.2 percent. He is averaging 223.4 yards a game. No. 4 Carl Odom has put up 499 rushing yards for the Falcons this season and averages 62.4 yards a game, second best in the conference. Hinckley Ropati is another standout running back for the Falcons who averages 58 yards a game with 464 on the season. Expect these two to be hot on Saturday night.

Comet quarterback Rodney Thompson has thrown for 2127 total yards this season with a completion rate of 60.7 percent. He is averaging 265.9 yards a game, which is the best in the conference. Thompson also is not afraid to run when he needs to and has 273 rushing yards on the season with a 34.1 game average. Damon Wigand has 198 rushing yards on the season on 59 carries. He averages 24.8 yards a game.

Looking at the receiving game, receiver C.J. Parks, who wears No. 5 for the Falcons, has 46 receptions on the season with 643 total yards. He averages 91.9 yards a game, the best in the conference, and had 54 last week. No. 7 Jovohn Tucker has 29 receptions on the season with 450 total yards. He put up 46 yards last week, but averages 56.3 yards a game.

Johnny Armentrout has 711 yards on the season with an average of 88.9 yards a game, second in the conference behind Parks. He put up 104 yards last week on nine receptions. Kyran Griffin sits behind Armentrout with 601 yards on the season and averages 75.1 yards a game.

The Comets saw a defensive shift last week when Kevin McKinzie and Wesley Huizor topped the charts with eight tackles on the night. McKinzie has 32 tackles on the season with one forced fumble, which happened last week, and two interceptions. Huizor has 18 tackles on the season and two tackles-for-loss totaling seven yards. Vavega Sialoi had another big game last week with seven total tackles, one tackle-for-loss for 14 yards and a forced fumble and recovery. He has two total sacks on the season for 12 yards and six tackles-for-loss for 34 yards. Kameron Camp has 56 tackles on the season and had a forced fumble and recovery last week. Giovanni Herrera has 42 tackles on the season and also had a forced fumble and recovery last week.

The Falcon defense is led by No. 9 Victor Clanton who has 48 tackles on the season. He averages six tackles a game and has one interception on the season. The Comets will also need to keep an eye on No. 1 Cameron Minor who has 30 tackles on the season with an average of 3.8 a game. He has two fumble recoveries, an interception and three breakups on the season. Also wearing No. 1 is Logan Applewhite who has 33 total tackles and two forced fumbles. He averages 4.1 tackles a game and last week had one sack for three yards and 3.5 tackles-for-loss for a total of eight yards.

Palomar is seeking its first conference win of the season and its third win. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Cerritos College.