The Almont Raiders will look to defend their home field on Saturday against the Ovid-Elsie Marauders at 1:00 p.m. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Almont sitting on three straight wins and Ovid-Elsie on five.
With a playoff game on the line, Almont rose to the challenge on Friday. They were the clear victor by a 49-24 margin over Edison Academy. Considering Almont has won seven matchups by more than 24 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Jonny Gjoka was on fire: he rushed for 138 yards and three touchdowns on only 13 carries. Another player making a difference was Chase Battani, who rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries.
Constantine typically have all the answers at home, but on Saturday Ovid-Elsie proved too difficult a challenge. Ovid-Elsie walked away with a 38-25 win over Constantine. Ovid-Elsie pushed the score to 38-13 by the end of the third, a deficit Constantine cut but never quite recovered from.
Clayton Fruchey went supernova for Ovid-Elsie, rushing for 202 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 7.5 yards per carry, and also catching a touchdown. Fruchey was no stranger to the big play, taking off on a dash that went for 50 yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Tryce Tokar, who threw for 67 yards and two touchdowns.
Almont's win bumped their record up to 11-1. As for Ovid-Elsie, they have been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-4 record this season.
Saturday's game might be decided on the ground as these two are both standouts in the run game. Almont has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 270.3 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Ovid-Elsie struggles in that department as they've been averaging 186.1 per game. It's looking like Saturday's game might have some serious battles in the trenches. Come back here after the game to get analysis of the match and other football content.
Almont came up short against Ovid-Elsie in their previous meeting back in October of 2022, falling 21-14. Can Almont avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
