Preview: Eastland Mavericks vs. Merkel Badgers
Eastland has enjoyed the comforts of home their last two games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will take on The Merkel Badgers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Texas (Eastland is ranked 570th, while Merkel is ranked 568th).
Last Friday, Eastland suffered a rough 49-24 loss at the hands of Jacksboro. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Eastland in their matchups with Jacksboro: they've now lost three in a row.
Eastland's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Griffin Beard, who picked up 99 receiving yards and a touchdown, and Isaiah Hays who threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns. Beard's longest reception was for an incredible 78 yards.
Meanwhile, Merkel had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 12 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They blew past Dublin 47-21. Merkel pushed the score to 47-7 by the end of the third, a deficit Dublin cut but never quite recovered from.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Merkel to victory, but perhaps none more so than Maddox O'malley, who rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns on only six carries, and also threw for 162 yards and three touchdowns on only 14 passes. Connor Willyerd was another key contributor, rushing for 168 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries.
The opposite results left the teams with opposite records: Merkel's win pushed their record up to 5-1, while Eastland's loss dropped theirs down to 1-5.
Eastland came up short against Merkel in their previous matchup back in October of 2022, falling 34-28. Thankfully for Eastland, Joey Zink (who rushed for 123 yards, and also threw for 88 yards and two touchdowns) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
