After two games on the road, Rouse is heading back home. After each having a week off, they and the Lake Belton Broncos will dust off their jerseys to face off against one another at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Rouse is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 38 points on September 6th, they were much more limited against Midway two weeks ago. They took a 17-6 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Panthers. While losing is never fun, the Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 312th, while the Panthers are ranked 133rd).
Despite the defeat, Rouse had strong showings from Leland Smit, who picked up 78 receiving yards and a touchdown, and Aubryn Davis, who rushed for 56 yards. What's more, Smit also racked up 19 rushing yards, the mosthe's had since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Lake Belton was able to grind out a solid win over Killeen two weeks ago, taking the game 49-42. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Broncos.
Lake Belton can attribute much of their success to Eli Mascarenas, who threw for 214 yards and three touchdowns on only 12 passes, and Zyien Dupree, who rushed for 183 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 8.3 yards per carry. Mascarenas got the majority of those rushing yards when he took off on a run that went for an incredible 56 yards. Zach Dodd was Mascarenas' top target, picking up 109 receiving yards and a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Lake Belton's defensive line and their ten sacks. Zion Williams led the group effort, picking up three of those sacks all by himself. He is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season. Lake Belton got some further help from Xavier Wells: he made five total tackles and snagged three interceptions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Lake Belton was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 325 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Killeen only rushed for 208.
Rouse now has a losing record at 1-2. As for Lake Belton, they now have a winning record of 2-1.
The upcoming game will be a clash of competing strengths. Rouse has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 302.7 passing yards per game. Lake Belton, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 200 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Rouse suffered a grim 34-10 defeat to Lake Belton in their previous matchup back in August of 2023. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point Rouse was down 34-10.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
