Football Preview: Williamsville Bullets vs. Byron Tigers
The Williamsville Bullets will challenge the Byron Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Friday, Williamsville was fully in charge, breezing past PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central/Greenview 49-14 on the road. Given the Bullets' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois football rankings (they are ranked 97th, while the are ranked 379th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Braddock Cates went supernova for Williamsville, rushing for 216 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 12.7 yards per carry. Cates' longest rush was for an incredible 93 yards. Matthew Miller was another key back, rushing for 57 yards and a touchdown.
Williamsville wouldn't let PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central/Greenview keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Williamsville can thank Gage Paul and Andrew Donelan for forcing both of them. Paul also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, forcing a fumble and making seven total tackles (3.0 for loss). Griffin Liles was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making nine total tackles (4.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Williamsville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 285 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 162 rushing yards in seven consecutive games dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Byron entered their tilt with Lutheran on Friday with 15 consecutive wins dating back to last season but they'll enter their next game with 16. They claimed a resounding 49-18 win over the Crusaders at home. The matchup was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 42-3.
Williamsville's victory bumped their record up to 2-0. As for Byron, their win was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 2-0.
Williamsville didn't have too much breathing room in their match against Byron in their previous meeting back in November of 2019, but they still walked away with a 46-42 victory. Does Williamsville have another victory up their sleeve, or will Byron turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
