Football Game Preview: Wheatland-Grinnell Thunderhawks vs. Minneola Wildcats

The Wheatland-Grinnell Thunderhawks are taking a road trip to square off against the Minneola Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Wheatland-Grinnell has given up an average of 37.8 points per game this season, but Thursday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.

Wheatland-Grinnell's offense might be in the hot seat on Thursday considering what happened against Wallace County on Friday. They had to suffer through a 50-0 loss at the hands of the Wildcats. The Thunderhawks haven't had much luck with the Wildcats recently, as the team has come up short the last four times they've met.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Minneola). They simply couldn't be stopped on Thursday as they easily beat Udall 78-28. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Wildcats.

On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Minneola's defense and their nine sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Bobby Littlewood and Karson Wideman, who racked up seven sacks between them. Wideman has been hot recently, having also posted five or more total tackles the last three times he's played. Cash Lang got in on the action too, converting a pick into a touchdown.

Special teams played a big role in the game for Minneola, adding 12 points to the final score. The biggest highlight from special teams (and perhaps the team as a whole) came courtesy of Braylon Moore, who ran a kickoff back for a touchdown.

Minneola's victory bumped their record up to 6-2. As for Wheatland-Grinnell, their loss dropped their record down to 3-5.

Everything came up roses for Wheatland-Grinnell against Minneola when the teams last played back in October of 2020, as the team secured a 56-20 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Thunderhawks since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.