Football Preview: Battle Creek Braves vs. Oakland-Craig Knights
The Battle Creek Braves will face off against the Oakland-Craig Knights at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are still undefeated after four-games, but that won't be the case come Friday.
Battle Creek is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 48-20 win over Archbishop Bergan at home. Considering the Braves have won three matches by more than 19 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Battle Creek's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Aden Pochop, who rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns, and also caught a touchdown. The dominant performance gave Pochop a new career-high in rushing yards. Another passer making a difference was Jaxon Mettler, who threw for 104 yards and three touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Battle Creek was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 286 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 164 rushing yards in 14 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
Battle Creek's defense made their presence known, laying out the QB four times. The heavy lifting was done by Dawson Amick and Connor Heiderman, who racked up all four sacks between them. Heiderman is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made six or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Oakland-Craig didn't have too much trouble with Malcolm at home on Friday as they won 27-9.
Jaxen Jorgensen continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 132 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.8 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 104.5 rushing yards per game. Braylon Anderson was another key player, throwing for 219 yards and two touchdowns.
Oakland-Craig's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged two passes before it was all said and done. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Jeremiah Druckenmiller. He also set a new season high mark in receiving yards with 99.
Battle Creek's win bumped their record up to 4-0. As for Oakland-Craig, their victory was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-0.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Battle Creek has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 272 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Oakland-Craig has preferred to attack from the air: they average 334.8 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Battle Creek couldn't quite finish off Oakland-Craig in their previous meeting back in September of 2017 and fell 27-24. Thankfully for Battle Creek, Evan Reinert (who rushed for 128 yards and three touchdowns, and also threw for 199 yards and a touchdown) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
