Football Game Preview: Wood River Eagles vs. St. Cecilia Bluehawks

For the first time this season, Wood River will have a chance to prove themselves in a conference matchup. They will be playing in front of their home fans against the St. Cecilia Bluehawks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Having both just faced considerable losses, both teams are looking to turn things around.

Wood River is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 41 points two weeks ago, they were much more limited against Boone Central on Friday. They were dealt a 55-13 defeat at the hands of the Cardinals. The loss was the Eagles' first of the season.

Although Wood River took the loss, they still got scores from Madden Brabec and Jace Martin.

Most of the squad's points came courtesy of special teams, who contributed seven in total. The biggest highlight from special teams (and perhaps the team as a whole) came courtesy of Martin, who ran a kickoff back for a touchdown.

Meanwhile, St. Cecilia fell victim to Bishop Neumann and their airtight defense on Friday. They were outmatched by the Cavaliers and fell 43-0. While losing is never fun, the Bluehawks can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska football rankings (they are ranked 89th, while the Cavaliers are ranked 18th).

St. Cecilia's loss dropped their record down to 0-4. As for Wood River, their defeat was their first of the season and makes their record 3-1.

Wood River strolled past St. Cecilia when the teams last played back in September of 2024 by a score of 37-20. Will the Eagles repeat their success, or do the Bluehawks have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.