Football Preview: Mater Dei Knights vs. Althoff Catholic Crusaders
After three games on the road, Mater Dei is heading back home. They and the Althoff Catholic Crusaders are set to duel on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Saturday, Mater Dei took their match on the road with ease, bagging a 42-7 victory over Marquette Catholic.
Chase Jansen and Brett Hilmes were among the main playmakers for Mater Dei as the former rushed for 87 yards on only seven carries and the latter gained 131 total yards and two touchdowns. Those 87 rushing yards gave Jansen a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Chase Zurliene, who rushed for 71 yards and a touchdown on only eight carries.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Mater Dei's defense and their five sacks. Marquette Catholic's QB won't forget Chandler Toennies anytime soon given he sacked him twice. Toennies is also on a roll when it comes to sacks, as he's now sacked two or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Mater Dei was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 249 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Althoff Catholic put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Collinsville 54-14 at home. The Crusaders might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five matchups by 27 points or more this season.
Jayden Ellington and Dierre Hill Jr were among the main playmakers for Althoff Catholic as the former threw for 330 yards and six touchdowns while completing 76.5% of his passes and the latter gained 181 total yards and two touchdowns. Charleston Coldon was Ellington's top target, picking up 116 receiving yards and a touchdown.
The win got Mater Dei back to even at 3-3. As for Althoff Catholic, they pushed their record up to 6-0 with the victory, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season.
Mater Dei lost to Althoff Catholic at home by a decisive 41-22 margin when the teams last played back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Hill Jr, who rushed for 218 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 8.7 yards per carry, and also picked up 31 receiving yards. Now that Mater Dei 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
