Football Game Preview: Salt Fork Storm vs. Dupo Tigers

The Salt Fork Storm will square off against the Dupo Tigers at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

On Friday, Salt Fork lost to Clifton Central at home by a 49-30 margin. While losing is never fun, the Storm can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois football rankings (they are ranked 215th, while the Comets are ranked 94th).

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Dupo). They blew past East Alton-Wood River 69-24 on Friday. The team's explosion on offense also rewarded the Tigers with their most commanding win of the season.

Salt Fork better focus on containing Deegan Prater and Luke Ellis as the pair were huge in Dupo's win. Prater threw for 193 yards and a pair of TDs while completing 77.8% of his passes, while Ellis rushed for 97 yards and two scores on only nine carries. That's the most rushing yards Ellis has posted since back in September. Tramar Bean was another key player, rushing for 63 yards and one touchdown on only seven carries.

Dupo was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 234 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.

Dupo didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Prater and Ethan Nelson. Prater got in on the action too, converting a pick into a touchdown.

The win made it two in a row for Dupo and bumps their season record up to 8-1. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 49.0 points over those games. As for Salt Fork, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 5-4.