The Harker Heights Knights will challenge the Temple Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Harker Heights sitting on five straight wins and Temple on three.
Last Friday, Harker Heights strolled past Shoemaker with points to spare, taking the game 26-7. The 26-point effort marked the Knights' lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Harker Heights' success was spearheaded by the efforts of Hudson Humble, who threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns while completing 85.7% of his passes, and Kaden Butler, who rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries. Butler's rushing production has been exceptional as that marked his sixth straight game with at least 123 rushing yards. C2 Evans handled things on the ground, rushing for 101 yards.
Harker Heights was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 227 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 155 rushing yards in nine consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Temple humbled Copperas Cove with a 42-14 victory. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 101st, while the Bulldawgs are ranked 401st), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Champ Mayo, who threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 14.1 yards per attempt.
Temple didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off four passes before the game was over. Jason Bradford led the group effort, picking up two of those interceptions all by himself. Deavonte Carr also set a new season high mark in total tackles with six. Temple got some further help from Dederick Colbert: he picked up a sack, made ten total tackles, and defended a pass.
Temple's victory was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 7-2. As for Harker Heights, their record is now an identical 7-2.
Harker Heights strolled past Temple when the teams last played back in October of 2023 by a score of 35-21. Will Harker Heights repeat their success, or does Temple have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
