Football Preview: Benton Tigers vs. Airline Vikings
The Benton Tigers are taking a road trip to face off against the Airline Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Last Thursday, Benton didn't have quite enough to beat Northwood and fell 24-21. The loss was the Tigers' first of the season.
Meanwhile, Airline had to travel to play their first game of the season, but the final result was worth the trip. They had just enough and edged Barbe out 52-49. Given the Vikings' advantage in MaxPreps' Louisiana football rankings (they are ranked 35th, while the Buccaneers are ranked 89th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
A big part of the win came down to the chemistry between Ben Taylor and his top target Kenny Darby. Taylor threw for 490 yards and four touchdowns while completing 77.4% of his passes while Darby picked up 315 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The dominant performance gave him a new career- in total yards. Micah Johnson was in the mix as well, providing Airline with two touchdowns.
Airline wouldn't let Barbe keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. Airline can thank Lane Plunkett and Luke Boyter for forcing all of them. Jaydan Gladney was another major factor on D, making ten total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Having lost for the first time this season, Benton fell to 2-1. As for Airline, their victory was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 1-0.
Benton suffered a grim 60-35 defeat to Airline when the teams last played back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Taylor, who threw for 471 yards and seven touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes. Now that Benton knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
