Football Preview: Bastrop Bears vs. McCallum Knights
Bastrop has been away from home for two games now, but on Friday they'll finally make their return. They will host the McCallum Knights at 7:30 p.m. Bastrop's defense has only allowed 17.5 points per game this season, so McCallum's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Bastrop is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Crockett 69-6 on the road on Thursday. Given the Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 324th, while the Cougars are ranked 1022nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Bastrop can attribute much of their success to Weston Nielsen, who threw for 150 yards and two touchdowns while completing 90.9% of his passes, and Ladainian Merino, who rushed for 73 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries. The dominant performance also gave Nielsen a new career-high in rushing yards. Quintaelyn Joyner was another key passer, throwing for 100 yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Bastrop was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 235 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Bastrop wouldn't let Crockett keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Bastrop can thank Austin Moilan and Zac Wilkinson for forcing both of them.
Meanwhile, McCallum entered their game against Elgin on Friday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. McCallum lost 50-26 to Elgin.
The victory got Bastrop back to even at 2-2. As for McCallum, their defeat dropped their record down to an identical 2-2.
The upcoming match will be a clash of competing strengths. Bastrop has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 293 passing yards per game. McCallum, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 150.7 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Bastrop took their win against McCallum when the teams last played back in October of 2015 by a conclusive 40-16. Will Bastrop repeat their success, or does McCallum have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
