Preview: Harlan Hawks vs. Eagle Pass Eagles
Two dominant signal callers in Noah Farris and Andres Villarreal are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Harlan Hawks will face off against the Eagle Pass Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Harlan comes in on ten and Eagle Pass on three.
Last Thursday, Harlan beat Taft 21-14. Given Harlan's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 106th, while Taft is ranked 287th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Among those leading the charge was Farris, who threw for 209 yards and three touchdowns. Harlan also got help from Payton Matthews who showed off his sure hands for 89 receiving yards.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Harlan's defense and their seven sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Nathaniel Tealer and Ronnell Cunningham who racked up five sacks between them.
Meanwhile, Eagle Pass put the finishing touches on their fifth blowout victory of the season on Thursday. They breezed by Del Rio at home to the tune of 48-14.
It was another big night for Villarreal, who threw for 375 yards and seven touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes, and also rushed for 80 yards on only five carries. Villarreal has been hot recently, having posted three or more passing touchdowns the last four times he's played. Another player making a difference was Wilfredo Frausto, who picked up 102 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Harlan's victory was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 10-0. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 1-9 Holmes and 1-9 Stevens (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 34% over those games). As for Eagle Pass, their victory bumped their record up to 7-3.
