Football Preview: Kelso Hilanders vs. Mercer Island Islanders
Kelso is on a six-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Mercer Island is on a five-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Kelso Hilanders will welcome the Mercer Island Islanders at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Kelso's defense heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed last Friday. They claimed a resounding 42-0 win over Shelton. That 42 point margin sets a new team best for the Hilanders this season.
Meanwhile, Mercer Island was fully in charge on Saturday, breezing past Highline 51-6. Given the Islanders' advantage in MaxPreps' Washington football rankings (they are ranked 48th, while the Pirates are ranked 161st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mercer Island's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Kainoa Brown, who rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 9.1 yards per carry. Those 146 rushing yards gave Brown a new career-high. Another signal caller making a difference was Youngmin Lee, who threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns while completing 86.4% of his passes.
Kelso has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 7-2 record this season. As for Mercer Island, their win bumped their record up to 9-0.
Kelso and Mercer Island were almost perfectly matched up in their previous meeting back in November of 2017, but Kelso suffered an agonizing 27-26 defeat. Can Kelso avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
