Football Preview: Paint Valley Bearcats vs. Zane Trace Pioneers
Paint Valley has been on the road for two straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. They will welcome the Zane Trace Pioneers at 7:00 p.m. Paint Valley's defense has only allowed 13.9 points per game this season, so Zane Trace's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Paint Valley's usually-dominant defense will be looking to make up for Friday's struggle, when Unioto offense got past them. Paint Valley was beaten by Unioto 43-0 on Friday. The match marked the first time this year in which the Bearcats were not able to get on the board.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Zane Trace). They breezed by Southeastern on the road to the tune of 48-12 on Friday. The result was nothing new for the Pioneers, who have now won four matchups by 21 points or more so far this season.
Silas Stewart was his usual excellent self, rushing for 138 yards and three touchdowns on only 14 carries. The team also got some help courtesy of Gunnar Mccullough, who threw for 152 yards and two touchdowns on only 13 passes.
Another reason for the win was Zane Trace's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for four sacks. Peyton Dotson was especially locked on to Southeastern's QB and sacked him twice.
Paint Valley's defeat ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 7-2. As for Zane Trace, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 5-4 record this season.
Paint Valley couldn't quite finish off Zane Trace in their previous meeting back in October of 2023 and fell 34-31. Thankfully for Paint Valley, Blake Phillips (who rushed for 132 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.8 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
