The Manhattan Indians will be staying on the road on Friday to face off against the Derby Panthers at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Manhattan is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. Everything went their way against Northwest as Manhattan made off with a 49-28 victory. 49 seems to be a good number for the Indians as the squad scooped up a win with the same number of points in their previous game.
The match pitted two dominant signal callers against one another in Carter Aslin and Jaylen Mason. Aslin had a great game and gained 469 total yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, Mason was balling out in the loss, throwing for 283 yards and four touchdowns on only 15 passes.
Manhattan wouldn't let Northwest keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Manhattan can thank Logan Lagerman and Colby Altevogt for forcing both of them. Altevogt also set a new season high mark in total tackles with 13.
Meanwhile, Derby put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They took their game with ease, bagging a 63-28 victory over East. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Kansas football rankings (they are ranked third, while the Aces are ranked 39th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Derby found their leader in sophomore Arieus Finley, who rushed for 177 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 8.9 yards per carry. Finley has been hot , having posted two or more rushing touchdowns the last six times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Drew Kemp, who threw for 237 yards and three touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes.
Derby's win was their 13th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 11-0. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 54.5 points per game. As for Manhattan, their victory bumped their record up to 11-0.
Friday's contest might be decided in the on the ground. Manhattan has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 269.7 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Derby struggles in that department as they've been averaging 251.6. It's looking like Friday's matchup might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Manhattan couldn't quite finish off Derby in their previous meeting back in November of 2023 and fell 23-21. Thankfully for Manhattan, Braxton Clark (who threw for 288 yards and a touchdown while picking up 11.5 yards per attempt, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
