Football Preview: Birch Run Panthers vs. Chesaning Indians
The Birch Run Panthers are taking a road trip to take on the Chesaning Indians at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Birch Run's defense has only allowed 17.8 points per game this season, so Chesaning's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Last Friday, in a tight game that could have gone either way, Birch Run made off with a 21-20 victory over New Lothrop.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Chesaning). They simply couldn't be stopped last Friday as they easily beat Mt. Morris 54-23 on the road. Given the Indians' advantage in MaxPreps' Michigan football rankings (they are ranked 109th, while the Panthers are ranked 275th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Chesaning's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Brayden Florian led the charge by rushing for 109 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries, while also picking up 66 receiving yards and a touchdown. Florian's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 109 rushing yards dating back to last season. Maxwell Volk was another key passer, throwing for 201 yards and three touchdowns on only 18 passes.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Chesaning's defense and their ten sacks. Cal Frasier and Braydn Wendling were the leaders of the group effort as each produced three apiece. The dominant performance also gave Frasier a new career-high in rushing yards.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Chesaning was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 272 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 172 rushing yards in four consecutive matchups.
The win got Birch Run back to even at 2-2. As for Chesaning, their victory was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-0.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
