Football Preview: Athens Golden Eagles vs. Hartselle Tigers
Athens hasn't had much luck against Hartselle recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Athens Golden Eagles will square off against the Hartselle Tigers at 7:00 p.m. Athens knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 31 points or more in their past three matches -- so hopefully Hartselle likes a good challenge.
Athens is probably headed into the game with a chip on their shoulder considering Muscle Shoals just ended the team's five-game winning streak on Friday. They took a 56-42 bruising from the Trojans. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game two weeks ago (39), the Golden Eagles still had to take the loss.
Athens might have lost, but man, Brogan Gross was a machine: he threw for 262 yards and five touchdowns, and also rushed for 70 yards. Those 70 rushing yards gave Gross a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Xavier Edwards, who rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Athens was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 222 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 153 rushing yards in eight consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Hartselle entered their tilt with Cullman on Friday with four consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with five. They had just enough and edged the Bearcats out 10-7. The ten-point effort marked the Tigers' lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Having lost for the first time this season, Athens fell to 5-1. As for Hartselle, their victory was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 5-1.
Athens came up short against Hartselle in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, falling 21-14. Thankfully for Athens, Ri Fletcher (who rushed for 250 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 11.4 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.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
