Football Preview: Smoky Hill Buffaloes vs. Eaglecrest Raptors
After two games on the road, Smoky Hill is heading back home. They will welcome the Eaglecrest Raptors at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Smoky Hill's offense might be in the hot seat on Saturday considering what happened against Fairview on Friday. They were beaten by the Knights 56-0. While losing is never fun, the Buffaloes can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Colorado football rankings (they are ranked 148th, while the Knights are ranked tenth).
Meanwhile, Eaglecrest didn't have too much trouble with ThunderRidge on the road on Thursday as they won 26-8. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Raptors.
Eaglecrest had a senior duo take command as Joe Steiner gained 336 total yards and Burke Withycombe gained 190 total yards and two touchdowns. Withycombe also set a new season high mark in receiving yards with 118. Another player making a difference was Kota Becker, who gained 75 total yards and two touchdowns.
One reason for the win was Eaglecrest's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for five sacks. T'Mario Walter was especially locked on to ThunderRidge's QB and sacked him 2.5 times. Another thorn in ThunderRidge's side was Ramadje Owens, who picked up a sack, made eight total tackles (1.5 for loss), and defended a pass.
Smoky Hill's defeat was their eighth straight on the road dating back to last season, which dropped their record down to 0-5. As for Eaglecrest, their win bumped their record up to 4-1.
Smoky Hill was dealt a bruising 55-14 loss at the hands of Eaglecrest when the teams last played back in October of 2023. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Smoky Hill was down 34-14.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
