Football Game Preview: St. Stephens Indians vs. Watauga Pioneers

The St. Stephens Indians will take on the Watauga Pioneers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

St. Stephens is headed into the matchup after thoroughly thrashing South Caldwell: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that the Indians blew the Spartans out of the water with a 48-2 final score. With the Indians ahead 35-0 at the half, the game was all but over already.

Meanwhile, Watauga strolled into their game on Friday with a perfect record and they left with the same. They claimed a resounding 55-21 victory over McDowell. The final result isn't all that surprising considering the Pioneers' considerable advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 21st, while the Titans are ranked 217th).

Watauga's win came from a few key players St. Stephens will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Cade Keller, who threw for 289 yards and four touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes, and also rushed for 32 yards and one TD. That's the most passing touchdowns he has posted since back in August. Nyle Peays was another key player, picking up 186 receiving yards and three scores.

Watauga's win bumped their record up to 9-0. As for St. Stephens, they now have a winning record of 5-4.

St. Stephens was taken down by Watauga 49-13 in their previous meeting back in March of 2021. Thankfully for the Indians, Sebastian Best (who rushed for 168 yards and a pair of TDs on only ten carries) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.