Preview: St. Francis Indians vs. Thunder Ridge Longhorns
The St. Francis Indians will head out on the road to face off against the Thunder Ridge Longhorns at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the pair will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Friday, everything went St. Francis' way against Logan/Palco as St. Francis made off with a 76-52 victory. St. Francis pushed the score to 68-28 by the end of the third, a deficit Logan/Palco cut but never quite recovered from.
St. Francis can attribute much of their success to Lucas Raile, who rushed for 75 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries, and Layn Todd, who rushed for 225 yards and six touchdowns while picking up 9.0 yards per carry. St. Francis also got help from Ethan Graham who showed off his sure hands for 149 receiving yards.
Meanwhile, Thunder Ridge had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 38 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They blew past Wheatland-Grinnell, posting a 52-6 victory on the road. Given Thunder Ridge's advantage in MaxPreps' Kansas football rankings (they are ranked 35th, while Wheatland-Grinnell is ranked 115th), the result wasn't exactly an upset.
Thunder Ridge's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Mason Baker led the charge by rushing for 109 yards and three touchdowns on only six carries, while also throwing for 162 yards and three touchdowns while completing 100% of his passes. Evan Slavik was another key contributor, picking up 111 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
St. Francis' victory pushed their record up to 2-4, while Thunder Ridge's bumped their own up to the opposite: 4-2.
St. Francis was taken down by Thunder Ridge 50-0 when the teams last played back in October of 2022. Can St. Francis avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
