Football Game Preview: Watkins Memorial Warriors vs. Licking Valley Panthers

Watkins Memorial is 2-8 against Licking Valley since October of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Warriors will host the Panthers at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

On Friday, Watkins Memorial took their contest with ease, bagging a 42-14 win over Licking Heights. The victory continues a trend for the Warriors in their matchups with the Hornets: they've now won four in a row.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Licking Valley). They really took it to Mt. Vernon for the full four quarters, racking up a 58-13 win. The Panthers pushed the score to 43-13 by the end of the third, a deficit the Yellowjackets had little chance of recovering from.

Watkins Memorial's victory bumped their record up to 4-5. As for Licking Valley, their win bumped their record up to 9-0.

Watkins Memorial took a serious blow against Licking Valley in their previous meeting back in October of 2024, falling 48-7. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of the Panthers' Brody Rodgers, who threw for 226 yards and four touchdowns while completing 80% of his passes, and also punched in one score on the ground. Now that the Warriors know the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.