The Meadville Bulldogs will take on the McDowell Trojans at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Meadville will roll into the matchup after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up 11 points last Friday, then bounced right back against Oil City on Friday. Meadville breezed by Oil City on the road to the tune of 42-6. The match marked the Bulldogs' most dominant win of the season so far.
Meadville's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jordan Lawrence, who rushed for 141 yards on only ten carries. With that strong performance, Lawrence is now averaging an impressive 107.5 rushing yards per game. Another passer making a difference was Jacoby Thompson, who threw for 128 yards and a touchdown on only 11 passes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Meadville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 319 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for McDowell, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Friday. They snuck past Erie with a 28-24 win on Thursday. Given the Trojans' advantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania football rankings (they are ranked 31st, while the Royals are ranked 140th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meadville pushed their record up to 3-1 with that victory, which was their fourth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for McDowell, the win also got them back to even at 2-2.
Meadville was dealt a bruising 52-13 loss at the hands of McDowell in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of McDowell's Blayze Myers, who threw for 291 yards and four touchdowns while completing 81.8% of his passes, and also rushed for 35 yards and a touchdown. Now that Meadville knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
