Football Preview: Pleasant Grove Hawks vs. Van Vandals
The Pleasant Grove Hawks will challenge the Van Vandals at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Van is hoping to do what Pittsburg couldn't last Friday: put an end to Pleasant Grove's winning streak, which now stands at five games. Pleasant Grove simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Pittsburg 49-3. Given the Hawks' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 67th, while the Pirates are ranked 620th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Van). They took their game last Friday with ease, bagging a 78-18 win over North Lamar. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Vandals.
Van's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Jaxon Moffatt led the charge by throwing for 198 yards and three touchdowns while completing 80% of his passes. Austin Moffatt was another key back, rushing for 90 yards on only eight carries.
Van was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 324 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Pleasant Grove pushed their record up to 7-2 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 5.7 points per game. As for Van, their win bumped their record up to 7-2.
Everything came up roses for Pleasant Grove against Van in their previous meeting back in November of 2022, as the squad secured a 48-13 victory. Will Pleasant Grove repeat their success, or does Van have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
