Football Game Preview: National Trail Blazers vs. Tri-County North Panthers

vs

Previous Games

08/29/24 - Away	26-12 W
08/25/23 - Home	28-21 W
08/26/22 - Away	33-14 W
08/27/21 - Home	0-22 L
10/24/20 - Neutral	21-0 W
+ 5 more games

National Trail and Tri-County North are an even 5-5 against one another since October of 2015, but not for long. The Blazers will be playing at home against the Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. National Trail has given up an average of 36.8 points per game this season, but Friday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.

National Trail is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 51 points last Friday, they were much more limited against Arcanum on Friday. They had to suffer through a 41-6 loss at the hands of the Trojans.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Tri-County North). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Dixie 54-19. The victory continues a trend for the Panthers in their matchups with the Greyhounds: they've now won five in a row.

This one was won in the trenches and the lion's share of the credit has to go to Peyton Fannin and Mason Givens. Fannin rushed for 207 yards and three TDs on only seven carries while Givens rushed for 136 yards and four touchdowns on only ten carries. Fannin's longest rush was for an incredible 77 yards.

Tri-County North was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 446 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 94 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five games they've averaged 270.7.

One reason for the win was Tri-County North's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for three sacks. The team can thank two different players for their defensive prowess: Luke Wright and Franklin Filbrun, who each picked up 0.5 sacks apiece.

National Trail's loss was their fourth straight on the road dating back to last season, which dropped their record down to 1-5. As for Tri-County North, their win bumped their record up to 2-4.

National Trail strolled past Tri-County North in their previous matchup back in August of 2024 by a score of 26-12. Will the Blazers repeat their success, or do the Panthers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.