Football Preview: Lemont Lemont HS vs. Hillcrest Hawks
Two dominant backs in Julius Dian and Erimus Wright are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Lemont Lemont HS will head out on the road to take on the Hillcrest Hawks at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are strolling into their matches after big wins in their previous games.
Lemont will roll into the matchup after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up ten points last Friday, then bounced right back against Oak Forest on Friday. Lemont took their game at home with ease, bagging a 33-3 win over Oak Forest. Considering the Lemont HS have won three contests by more than 29 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Meanwhile, Hillcrest came tearing into Friday's match with four straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 29.3 points) and they left with even more momentum. They blew past the Cardinals 42-17. Given the Hawks' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois football rankings (they are ranked 127th, while the Cardinals are ranked 268th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Wright was his usual excellent self, rushing for 90 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries. Another rusher making a difference was Daquan Dennis, who rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown on only ten carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Hillcrest was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 258 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 210 rushing yards in four consecutive matchups.
Hillcrest didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Jamari Thomas and Cameron Williams.
Lemont has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a massive bump to their 5-3 record this season. As for Hillcrest, they pushed their record up to 5-3 with the victory, which was their third straight at home.
Lemont couldn't quite finish off Hillcrest in their previous meeting back in September of 2023 and fell 19-16. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Wright, who rushed for 147 yards and a touchdown. Now that Lemont knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
