Football Game Preview: River Road Wildcats vs. Dalhart Wolves

River Road is 2-8 against Dalhart since September of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Wildcats will host the Wolves at 7:00 p.m. This will be River Road's first chance to prove their worth in the conference.

It was a proper cat-fight when River Road challenged Guymon on Friday. The Wildcats received a blow as they fell 29-14 to the Tigers. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' football rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 1088th in Texas, while the Tigers are ranked 180th in Oklahoma).

Meanwhile, Dalhart came tearing into last Friday's game with four straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 33.5 points), and they left with even more momentum. They breezed past the Mustangs to the tune of 54-22. The result was nothing new for the Wolves, who have now won five matchups by 23 points or more so far this season.

River Road better keep an eye on Hunter Trusler. He was instrumental in Dalhart's win, rushing for 86 yards and a pair of scores, while also throwing for 248 yards and three touchdowns while completing 76.2% of his passes. That's the most passing yards Trusler has posted since back in November of 2024. Another player making a difference was Kaleb Speer, who gained 125 total yards and a touchdown.

Dalhart didn't let much get past them through the air: they limited Denver City to a completion percentage of just 50%. The Wolves have been improving in that area: they had allowed a completion percentage of 0.6 earlier this season, but they've only allowed one of 0.6 in their last three games.

Dalhart's win bumped their record up to 6-1. As for River Road, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-6.

Things could have been worse for River Road, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 35-19 loss to Dalhart in their previous matchup back in October of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Trusler, who rushed for 57 yards and a pair of TDs, and also threw for 76 yards and one touchdown. Now that the Wildcats know the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.