Football Preview: Pymatuning Valley Lakers vs. Harding Skippers
Pymatuning Valley is 5-0 against Harding since September of 2020, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Pymatuning Valley Lakers will look to defend their home field against the Harding Skippers at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Pymatuning Valley's defense heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Friday. They took their matchup on the road with ease, bagging a 40-0 victory over St. John. Given the Lakers' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio football rankings (they are ranked 307th, while the Fighting Herald are ranked 640th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Harding). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Grand Valley 43-14 on the road.
A big part of Harding's win came down to the chemistry between Brady Lawson and his top target Yomar Castellano. Lawson threw for 151 yards and four touchdowns while completing 80% of his passes while Castellano picked up 108 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Castellano also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, forcing a fumble and making four total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Harding was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 306 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Harding's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged two passes before it was all said and done. The picks came courtesy of Dj Dambolena and Isaac Maldonado.
Pymatuning Valley pushed their record up to 5-1 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. As for Harding, they now have a winning record of 3-2.
Everything came up roses for Pymatuning Valley against Harding in their previous meeting back in September of 2023, as the team secured a 40-0 win. Does Pymatuning Valley have another victory up their sleeve, or will Harding turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
