The Henrietta Bearcats will take on the Comanche Indians at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Henrietta entered their tilt with Valley View with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. Henrietta blew past Valley View, posting a 62-2 victory on the road. Given Henrietta's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 477th, while Valley View is ranked 1036th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Garrett Blevins and Blaze Deaton were among the main playmakers for Henrietta as the former rushed for 81 yards and three touchdowns on only six carries and the latter rushed for 194 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries. Deaton's longest rush was for an incredible 74 yards. Another player making a difference was Jaxon Fugett, who rushed for 76 yards and a touchdown on only six carries.
The team's defense also helped out by holding Valley View to a paltry 20 yards. A big part of that defensive dominance came down to Henrietta's ability to keep the quarterback under pressure: the team laid him out four times before it was all said and done. Leading the way was Eric Sikes and his two sacks.
Meanwhile, Comanche had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 46.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They breezed by Eastland on the road to the tune of 46-7.
Henrietta's victory was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 7-3. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 1-9 Bowie and 2-8 Valley View (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 33.6% over those games). As for Comanche, their win bumped their record up to 6-4.
Henrietta was dealt a bruising 69-27 loss at the hands of Comanche in their previous matchup back in November of 2022. Can Henrietta avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
