Football Preview: Heard County Braves vs. Bowdon Red Devils
The Heard County Braves will head out on the road to face off against the Bowdon Red Devils at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both might be coming in a bit winded given how much these teams ran up and down the field in their prior games.
Heard County will head into Friday's matchup out to bounce back: they came back down to earth last Friday after soaring to a 34-point contest in their last game. They fell just short of Murphy by a score of 29-27. While losing is never fun, the Braves can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' football rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 278th in Georgia, while the Bulldogs are ranked 79th in North Carolina).
Despite the loss, Heard County saw an underclassman step up: Ethan Tisdale rushed for 206 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 9.4 yards per carry, and also threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns. With that strong performance, Tisdale is now averaging an impressive 109 rushing yards per game. Zaiden Moreland was in the mix too, providing Heard County with two touchdowns.
Even though they lost, Heard County was moving up and down the field and finished the game with 459 total yards. That's the most total yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Heard County wouldn't let Murphy keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. It was truly a group effort as Logan Parmer, Jack Goss, and Payden Boogher picked up one apiece. Boogher also put in work on the defensive side of the ball, forcing a fumble and making three total tackles (1.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, Bowdon had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 34.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They claimed a resounding 56-27 victory over the Seminoles at home. The Red Devils might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three games by 20 points or more this season.
Bowdon's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Charles Maxell Iii led the charge by throwing for 169 yards and four touchdowns on only 14 passes, while also rushing for 36 yards and a touchdown. Joshawia Davis also helped out as he racked up 106 rushing yards.
Having lost for the first time this season, Heard County fell to 2-1. As for Bowdon, their win bumped their record up to 3-1.
Heard County took their victory against Bowdon when the teams last played back in October of 2015 by a conclusive 21-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Heard County since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps