Football Game Preview: Taft Raiders vs. Harlan Hawks

Two dominant signal callers in Tucker Vogel and Aldric Trotter are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Taft Raiders will challenge the Harlan Hawks at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Taft has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the matchup with three straight defeats, while Harlan will come in with seven straight wins.

On Saturday, Taft didn't have quite enough to beat Sotomayor and fell 34-31.

The losing side was boosted by David Aguirre, who picked up 100 receiving yards and one score.

Meanwhile, it was a Battle of the Birds when Harlan challenged Stevens on Thursday. The Hawks claimed a resounding 57-19 victory over the Falcons. Given the Hawks' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 98th, while the Falcons are ranked 646th) , the win wasn't entirely unexpected.

Harlan's win bumped their record up to 7-0. As for Taft, they now have a losing record of 3-4.

Taft was taken down by Harlan 49-7 in their previous matchup back in October of 2024. Can the Raiders avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.