Football Game Preview: Mitchell Tigers vs. Valentine

The Mitchell Tigers will challenge Valentine at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 884 yards in their previous games.

Mitchell is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They breezed past Gordon-Rushville to the tune of 49-6 on Friday. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 35-0.

Michael Plasencio

Rushing Yards (Career)

09/26/25 @ Gordon-Rushville	192
09/06/24 vs Gering	67
09/12/25 vs Chadron	53
10/18/24 vs Amherst	49
08/30/24 vs Wheatland	48

Michael Plasencio had another great game (as he tends to do), rushing for 192 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries, while also picking up 41 receiving yards. Those 192 rushing yards gave him a new career-high. James Billingsley was another key player, rushing for 37 yards and one TD.

They were just one part of a punishing run game: Mitchell was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 386 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.

On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Mitchell's defense and their four sacks. Rio Williams was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up two himself. He also set a new season-high mark in total tackles with 12.

For whatever reason, it's the away team that's had the advantage when Valentine and Hershey meet (three straight games heading into this one) and that held true again on Friday. Valentine had to suffer through a 58-28 loss at the hands of Hershey.

Valentine's loss dropped their record down to 1-4. As for Mitchell, they moved to 2-3 with that win, which also ended their three-game losing streak.

Mitchell lost to Valentine at home by a decisive 45-26 margin when the teams last played back in October of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Valentine's Trace Buechle, who threw for 166 yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 55 yards and one score on only six carries. Now that the Tigers know the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.