Football Preview: Montrose Red Hawks vs. Widefield Gladiators
The Montrose Red Hawks will head out on the road to challenge the Widefield Gladiators at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Montrose has eight straight wins, Widefield has eight straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Montrose is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Colorado's top teams: Mesa Ridge, who was ranked 23rd in their home state at the time (Montrose was ranked 15th). Montrose snuck past Mesa Ridge with a 32-28 victory on Friday. The 32-point effort marked the Red Hawks' lowest-scoring game of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Meanwhile, Widefield fell victim to Pueblo West and their airtight defense on Thursday. They were beaten by the Cyclones 41-0. While getting shut out isn't ideal, the Gladiators haven't been shut out since back in August.
Montrose's win was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 8-0. As for Widefield, their loss dropped their record down to 0-8.
Montrose strolled past Widefield in their previous meeting back in October of 2015 by a score of 38-20. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Widefield's Tavian Valentine, who rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown, and also picked up 63 receiving yards and a touchdown. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Montrose to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
