The Kearney Bearcats will venture away from home to challenge the Millard South Patriots at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Kearney is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Grand Island: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Kearney blew Grand Island out of the water with a 42-0 final score. Given the Bearcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska football rankings (they are ranked tenth, while the Islanders are ranked 50th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Griffin Novacek was a one-man wrecking crew for Kearney as he rushed for 21 yards and two touchdowns, and also threw for 90 yards and two touchdowns while completing 80% of his passes. Samuel Nachtigal handled things on the ground, rushing for 135 yards.
Nachtigal wasn't the only one working in the rushing yards department: Kearney was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 293 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Millard South, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped on Thursday as they easily beat Millard West 56-0 at home. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Patriots had established a 49 point advantage.
Millard South got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Chase Loftin out in front who picked up 111 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Aamir Hill did his part for the team as well, scoring a TD off of 52 receiving yards.
Millard South wouldn't let Millard West keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. It was truly a group effort as Amarion Jackson, Dayton Gaius, and Eli Mitchell picked up one apiece. Gaius also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, forcing a fumble, making two total tackles (1.0 for loss), and defending two passes. Millard South got some further help from Dylan Kuhl: he picked up a sack and made eight total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Kearney pushed their record up to 2-0 with that win, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Millard South, the victory also got them back to even at 1-1.
Kearney ended up a good deal behind Millard South in their previous matchup back in October of 2022, losing 35-21. Can Kearney avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
