Football Preview: Pleasant Plains Cardinals vs. Olympia Spartans
The Pleasant Plains Cardinals will head out to face off against the Olympia Spartans at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Having both just faced considerable losses, both teams are looking to turn things around.
Pleasant Plains will head into Friday's match out to bounce back: they won a close one the last time they played, but unfortunately they suffered a serious change of fortune on Friday. They had to suffer through a 41-14 loss at the hands of Pittsfield.
Meanwhile, Olympia and Maroa-Forsyth met for a duel on Friday where Olympia had to take the L. Olympia took a blow against Maroa-Forsyth, falling 61-33. While losing is never fun, the Spartans can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois football rankings (they are ranked 220th, while the Trojans are ranked 78th).
Despite the defeat, Olympia got top-tier performance from Jimmy Lollar, who rushed for 249 yards and a touchdown while picking up 8.9 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave Lollar a new career-high in rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Ian Tackett, who rushed for 52 yards and a touchdown.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Olympia was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 415 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Maroa-Forsyth only rushed for 262.
Pleasant Plains' loss was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season, which dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Olympia, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 4-3.
Pleasant Plains was dealt a bruising 61-21 defeat at the hands of Olympia when the teams last played back in October of 2023. Thankfully for Pleasant Plains, Kade Lollar (who rushed for 201 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 10.6 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
