Preview: Goessel Bluebirds vs. Little River Redskins
Goessel is 1-7 against Little River since October of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Goessel Bluebirds will be playing at home against the Little River Redskins at 8:00 p.m. Goessel will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Kansas Rankings (they are ranked 71st, while Little River is ranked 17th).
Goessel fell victim to Moundridge's stalwart defense on Friday and couldn't make it onto the board. They were beaten by the Wildcats 48-0. Having soared to a lofty 46 points in the game before, Goessel couldn't push the score so high this time.
Meanwhile, Little River got themselves on the board against Pretty Prairie on Friday, but Pretty Prairie never followed suit. They breezed by the Bulldogs at home to the tune of 46-0. The result was nothing new for Little River, who have now won four matches by 40 points or more so far this season.
Andrew Smith continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 172 yards and four touchdowns on only eight carries. Smith was no stranger to the big play, turning on the jets for a run that went for 69 yards. Kyler Bergkamp made the highlight reel by snagging an interception and taking it all the way to the house.
Goessel's loss was their sixth straight on the road (dating back to last season), which dropped their overall record down to 1-6. Admittedly, the team was facing some tough opposition over that stretch, including 6-1 Canton-Galva and 11-2 Little River (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 70.3% over those games). Little River is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Goessel was taken down by Little River 60-14 in their previous meeting back in October of 2022. Thankfully for Goessel, Braxton Lafferty (who rushed for 216 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 12.0 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
