Football Preview: Northwest Raiders vs. DeRidder Dragons
Two dominant backs in Ke'Von Johnson and Connor Rushford are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Northwest Raiders will be playing at home against the DeRidder Dragons at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Northwest knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 31 points or more in their past six contests -- so hopefully DeRidder likes a good challenge.
Last Friday, Northwest got the win against Iota by a conclusive 36-11. The Raiders might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won seven matches by 25 points or more this season.
Meanwhile, a victory for DeRidder just wasn't in the cards on Thursday as the team wasn't able to take the lead at any point. They had to suffer through a 42-14 loss at the hands of Iowa. The Dragons gained 94 more yards on the day, but it was the Yellowjackets that made the best use of them.
DeRidder might have lost, but man, Rushford was a machine: he rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown. Rushford has become a key player for DeRidder: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least 100 rushing yards, but 3-4 otherwise. DeRidder also got a significant boost from Reed Williams, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 81 yards.
Even though they lost, DeRidder was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 200 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 200 rushing yards in five consecutive games.
Northwest's win was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 8-2. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 9.6 points per game. As for DeRidder, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-5.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
