Football Preview: Van Vandals vs. Pleasant Grove Hawks
The Van Vandals will head out on the road to take on the Pleasant Grove Hawks at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both are strolling into their matches after big wins in their previous games.
Van is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 78-18 win over North Lamar. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Van to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jaxon Moffatt, who threw for 198 yards and three touchdowns while completing 80% of his passes. Van also got a significant boost from Austin Moffatt, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 90 yards.
Van was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 324 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Pleasant Grove had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 35.8 points) and they went ahead and made it five last Friday. They took their game with ease, bagging a 49-3 win over the Pirates. Given the Hawks' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 67th, while the Pirates are ranked 620th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Van pushed their record up to 7-2 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 47.3 points per game. As for Pleasant Grove, their record now sits at 7-2.
Van took a serious blow against Pleasant Grove in their previous matchup back in November of 2022, falling 48-13. Can Van avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
