Football Game Preview: Clever Blue Jays vs. Pleasant Hope/Halfway

The Clever Blue Jays will challenge Pleasant Hope/Halfway at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Neither of those teams managed to put together many points in their previous contests, so the offenses might be a little more motivated than usual.

On Friday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Clever beat Springfield Catholic 13-7.

This one was won in the trenches and the lion's share of the credit has to go to Quintin Lemmer and Kendall Piper. Lemmer rushed for 102 yards and one touchdown while Piper rushed for 22 yards and one TD.

Clever didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Braxtyn Myers and Blaine Abbott.

Meanwhile, Pleasant Hope/Halfway was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their tenth straight loss dating back to last season. They took a blow against Warsaw, falling 86-6. While losing is never fun, Pleasant Hope/Halfway can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Missouri football rankings (they are ranked 304th, while Warsaw is ranked 67th).

Clever has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 7-2 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 13.6 points on average over those games. As for Pleasant Hope/Halfway, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-5.