The Heartland Huskies will challenge the East Butler Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The timing isn't great for Heartland: they have been struggling with six straight losses at home dating back to last season, while East Butler has snatched up three consecutive wins on the road.
Heartland is headed into the game out to prove that what happened against McCool Junction on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Heartland was beaten by McCool Junction 52-6.
Meanwhile, after only 12 points in their last match, East Butler made sure to put some points up on the board against Mead on Friday. East Butler snuck past Mead with a 52-46 victory.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead East Butler to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jakson Smaus, who picked up 143 receiving yards, and also rushed for 41 yards. Those 41 rushing yards gave Smaus a new career-high. Ryder Jarecki was another key player, throwing for 96 yards and three touchdowns.
East Butler didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Smaus and Garrett White. White also set a new season high mark in total tackles with nine.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, East Butler was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 232 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Mead only rushed for 122.
Heartland's loss dropped their record down to 0-6. As for East Butler, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 4-2 record this season.
Everything came up roses for Heartland against East Butler when the teams last played back in November of 2016, as the team secured a 70-42 win. Does Heartland have another victory up their sleeve, or will East Butler turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
