Football Preview: Lakeland Hawks vs. Moscow Bears
Lakeland has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will head out to square off against the Moscow Bears at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Lakeland's defense has only allowed 12.4 points per game this season, so Moscow's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Lakeland is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Idaho's top teams: Post Falls, who was ranked seventh in their home state at the time (Lakeland was ranked 19th). Lakeland was just a hair shy of victory on Friday and fell 21-20 to Post Falls.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Kage (Lovie) Weil, who rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown, and also caught a touchdown. Jace Taylor also helped out with an impressive 107 receiving yards.
Meanwhile, Moscow put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They breezed by St. Maries on the road to the tune of 49-13. Considering the Bears have won three matches by more than 35 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Moscow's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Keaton Frei, who rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries, and Noah Velasco, who threw for 128 yards and four touchdowns while completing 76.9% of his passes. Butch Kiblen was Velasco's top target, picking up 53 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Moscow was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 217 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted was before the start of last season.
Lakeland's defeat dropped their record down to 3-2. As for Moscow, their victory bumped their record up to 5-0.
Friday's matchup might be decided in the trenches. Lakeland has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 183.2 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Moscow, though, as they've been averaging only 87. How will they fare against such a dominant running game?
Everything came up roses for Lakeland against Moscow when the teams last played back in October of 2023, as the team secured a 31-0 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Lakeland 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
