Football Preview: Lake Havasu Knights vs. Buckeye Hawks
The Lake Havasu Knights will challenge the Buckeye Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Lake Havasu is headed into the match out to prove that what happened against Yuma Catholic on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Lake Havasu lost 51-25 to Yuma Catholic. While losing is never fun, the Knights can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona football rankings (they are ranked 98th, while the Shamrocks are ranked 28th).
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Gavin Briggs, who picked up 79 receiving yards and two touchdowns. An impressive showing, but he really ramped things up playing D: he picked up a sack and made 11 total tackles in addition to snagging an interception. Lake Havasu also got help from Carter Devett, who showed off his sure hands for 127 receiving yards.
Lake Havasu didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Briggs, Kyle Crowe, and Spencer Ibarra picked up one apiece.
Meanwhile, Buckeye was not able to break out of their rough patch last Thursday as the team picked up their sixth straight defeat. They lost to St. Mary's on the road by a 21-7 margin.
Despite the loss, Buckeye saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Xylin Yancy rushed for 173 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.6 yards per carry. Those 173 rushing yards set a new season-high mark for Yancy.
Even though they lost, Buckeye was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 246 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
Buckeye's defeat dropped their record down to 2-7. As for Lake Havasu, they now have a losing record at 4-5.
Lake Havasu was dealt a bruising 49-14 loss at the hands of Buckeye when the teams last played back in November of 2023. Thankfully for Lake Havasu, Zachary Bennett (who threw for 307 yards and five touchdowns while completing 76.2% of his passes, and also punched in a rushing score) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
