Two dominant backs in Erimus Wright and Julius Dian are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Hillcrest Hawks will look to defend their home field on Thursday against the Lemont Lemont HS at 6:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Lemont is hoping to do what Blue Island Eisenhower couldn't on Friday: put an end to Hillcrest's winning streak, which now stands at five games. Everything went Hillcrest's way against Blue Island Eisenhower as Hillcrest made off with a 42-17 win. Given the Hawks' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois football rankings (they are ranked 127th, while the Cardinals are ranked 268th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Wright was his usual excellent self, rushing for 90 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries. Another back making a difference was Daquan Dennis, who rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown on only ten carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Hillcrest was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 258 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 210 rushing yards in four consecutive matches.
Hillcrest didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Jamari Thomas and Cameron Williams.
Meanwhile, after only ten points in their last contest, Lemont made sure to put some points up on the board against Oak Forest on Friday. Lemont claimed a resounding 33-3 victory over Oak Forest at home.
Hillcrest pushed their record up to 5-3 with the win, which was their third straight at home. As for Lemont, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season.
Hillcrest skirted past Lemont 19-16 in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. Will Hillcrest repeat their success, or does Lemont have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
