Tale of the Tape: Calera

The Northridge Jaguars opened the 2024 season on the road in a Class 6A matchup with the Calera Eagles. The Jags and Eagles battled and saw the Jags with a 30-14 lead shortly into the fourth quarter. The Eagles battled back to it to 30-27 with under two minutes to go, but the Jags recovered an onside kick attempt and held on for the win.

In the offensive/receiving category . . . Rowdy Christensen went 2-for-6 for 58 yards. The two completions both went for touchdowns. His longest completion was 34 yards. Mayson Elam hauled in one touchdown pass that covered 34 yards. Parker Cline caught the other touchdown pass that covered 24 yards.

In the rushing category . . . Jaylin McCray had 23 carries for 200 yards, including a longest run of 35 yards and one touchdown. Jacob Hall totaled 76 yards on 10 carries, with a long run of 21 yards. Magnus Greimel totaled 50 yards on 9 carries, with a longest run of 11 yards. Christensen had one run for 18 yards. Colin Kapilovic added two one yard runs, one being a touchdown.

Northridge accumulated 346 yards on the ground and the 58 passing yards gave the Jags 404 yards of total offense.

McCray added 56 yards on kick returns to lead the team with 256 all-purpose yards.

Notables: We knew Christensen would be back as quarterback this year. One question was who would replace Tyson Whiteside. McCray seemed to be the answer, collecting over 25% of Whiteside’s production (758 yards) in 2023. Kicker Caleb Scofield dropped all of his kickoffs in the end zone. That may be a small blip on the stat sheet, but it eliminates any potential for big, potentially momentum shifting plays from the opponent on kickoffs.