Northwest Christian posted their closest victory since September 22, 2023 on Friday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past the Peoria Panthers 31-28. The score was all tied up 21-21 at the break, but the Crusaders were the better team in the second half.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Northwest Christian to victory, but perhaps none more so than Laki Wallwork, who threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns while completing 72.2% of his passes. A healthy portion of that aerial production (111 yards to be exact) went to Devon Helmer, who also brought in two receiving touchdowns.
Several Panthers players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Cristian Carrillo, who rushed for 159 yards while picking up 7.2 yards per carry, and also caught a touchdown. The dominant performance gave Carrillo a new career-high in rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Dontay Tyson Jr, who picked up 134 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Northwest Christian's victory bumped their record up to 3-1. As for Peoria, they dropped their record down to 1-3 with the loss, which was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season.
Northwest Christian will challenge Eastmark at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Eastmark's defense has only allowed 9.8 points per game this season, so Northwest Christian's offense will have their work cut out for them. As for Peoria, they will head out on the road to square off against Cactus at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Cactus focused on turnovers this week as team gave up four on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
