Football Preview: Albany Lions vs. Merkel Badgers
The Albany Lions will challenge the Merkel Badgers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Merkel took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on Albany, who comes in off a win.
Albany took a loss when they played away from home two weeks ago, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They really took it to Seymour for the full four quarters, racking up a 35-7 win at home. Given the Lions' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 410th, while the Panthers are ranked 919th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Branson Beal had a dynamite game for Albany, rushing for 190 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 10.6 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave Beal a new career-high in rushing yards. Calhan Fairchild made the highlight reel by snagging an interception and taking it all the way to the house.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Albany was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 295 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Seymour only rushed for 62.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Albany's defense and their 8.5 sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Coy Flowers and Zane Green who racked up four sacks between them.
Meanwhile, Merkel was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They were beaten by Hawley 47-6.
Albany pushed their record up to 1-2 with that victory, which was their eighth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Merkel, their loss dropped their record down to 0-3.
Friday's match might be decided in the trenches. Albany has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 178.3 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Merkel, though, as they've been averaging only 24.3. How will they fare against such a dominant running game? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
