Football Preview: Shelley Russets vs. Sugar-Salem Diggers
After starting their season with two straight games on the road, Shelley is finally coming home. They will host the Sugar-Salem Diggers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have been evenly matched recently as the teams are 5-5 against one another since October of 2014.
Shelley is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another highly-ranked state team: Star Valley, who was ranked first at the time (Shelley was ranked 21st). Shelley was dealt a 44-0 defeat at the hands of Star Valley on Friday. Having soared to a lofty 41 points in the game before, the Russets' shutout was a dramatic turnaround.
Meanwhile, Sugar-Salem entered their tilt with Snake River on Friday with 12 consecutive wins dating back to last season but they'll enter their next game with 13. They breezed by the Panthers on the road to the tune of 41-6. Given the Diggers' advantage in MaxPreps' Idaho football rankings (they are ranked seventh, while the Panthers are ranked 53rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Dawson McInelly was a one-man wrecking crew for Sugar-Salem as he rushed for 88 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries, and also picked up 41 receiving yards and a touchdown. Another big playmaker for Sugar-Salem was Ace Clark, who returned a punt for a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Sugar-Salem was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 248 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 164 rushing yards in 13 consecutive games dating back to last season.
Shelley's loss dropped their record down to 1-1. As for Sugar-Salem, they pushed their record up to 2-0 with that victory, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Shelley was taken down by Sugar-Salem 42-14 in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. Thankfully for Shelley, Carson Harris (who rushed for 144 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 7.2 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
