Football Preview: Batesville Bulldogs vs. Heritage Hills Patriots
The Batesville Bulldogs will challenge the Heritage Hills Patriots at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Batesville comes in on four and Heritage Hills on 11.
Batesville is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They secured a 41-37 W over Tri-West Hendricks.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Batesville to victory, but perhaps none more so than Gage Pohlman, who rushed for 201 yards while picking up 7.4 yards per carry. With that strong performance, Pohlman is now averaging an impressive 102.5 rushing yards per game. Another passer making a difference was Will Jaisle, who threw for 97 yards and three touchdowns.
Batesville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 260 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 201 rushing yards in four consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Heritage Hills blew past North Harrison, posting a 50-7 victory. The result was nothing new for the Patriots, who have now won ten contests by 20 points or more so far this season.
Heritage Hills' success was spearheaded by the efforts of Jett Goldsberry, who rushed for 67 yards and a touchdown, and Hunter Meredith, who rushed for 73 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries.incredibly, Goldsberry got all that yardage with just one huge run Andersen Smith made the highlight reel by snagging an interception and taking it all the way to the house.
Heritage Hills pushed their record up to 12-1 with the win, which was their 15th straight at home dating back to last season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 33.6 points. As for Batesville, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 9-3 record this season.
Friday's matchup might be decided in the on the ground. Batesville has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 160.3 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Heritage Hills struggles in that department as they've been averaging 231.3. It's looking like Friday's game might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Batesville couldn't quite finish off Heritage Hills in their previous meeting back in November of 2023 and fell 24-21. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Goldsberry, who rushed for 157 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 8.3 yards per carry, and also threw for 84 yards and a touchdown. Now that Batesville 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
