Willamette is 2-8 against Thurston since October of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Willamette Wolverines will look to defend their home field against the Thurston Colts at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Willamette will head into Friday's matchup after some sweet revenge against Crater: Willamette couldn't quite topple Crater on Friday, but it was still a huge improvement compared to the 28-point loss they took when the two last played. Willamette put the hurt on Crater with a sharp 36-14 win.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Thurston). They took their contest on Friday with ease, bagging a 55-13 victory over North Eugene. Given the Colts' advantage in MaxPreps' Oregon football rankings (they are ranked 35th, while the Highlanders are ranked 94th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Noah Blair continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 266 yards and five touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes. Another player making a difference was Justin Fisher, who gained 123 total yards and a touchdown.
Thurston wouldn't let North Eugene keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Thurston can thank Payton Ferriera and Logan Hardwick for forcing both of them.
Willamette's win was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 7-1. As for Thurston, the victory made it two in a row for them and also bumps their season record up to 7-1.
Willamette was taken down by Thurston 63-6 when the teams last played back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Blair, who threw for 253 yards and five touchdowns while completing 93.3% of his passes, and also rushed for 55 yards. Now that Willamette 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
