Football Preview: Valdez Buccaneers vs. Seward Seahawks
The Valdez Buccaneers are on the road again on Saturday to play the Seward Seahawks.
Valdez is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Alaska's top teams: Monroe Catholic, who was ranked fourth in their home state at the time (Valdez was ranked third). Valdez fell 28-20 to Monroe Catholic on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Seward put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They put the hurt on Nikiski with a sharp 36-14 victory. The 36-point effort marked the Seahawks' lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Ronan Bickling continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 143 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries. His longest rush was for an incredible 80 yards. Another back making a difference was Noah Price, who rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Seward was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 264 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 151 rushing yards in 12 consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Valdez dropped their record down to 1-3 with that loss, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Seward, their win bumped their record up to 5-0.
Valdez was dealt a bruising 64-8 defeat at the hands of Seward in their previous meeting back in August. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Price, who rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown, and also caught a touchdown. Now that Valdez 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
