The Southwest Roughriders will be playing at home against the Paxton Tigers at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Friday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Southwest beat Wallace 20-14. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Southwest.
Southwest's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Nathan Rippe, who picked up 109 receiving yards and a touchdown, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. Another player making a difference was Mitchell Stritt, who rushed for 98 yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, Paxton had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 34 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They put the hurt on Wauneta-Palisade with a sharp 40-20 win. The result was nothing new for Paxton, who have now won three games by 20 points or more so far this season.
Gunnar Foster continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 232 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 9.7 yards per carry. Foster's longest rush was for an incredible 78 yards.
Southwest is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season. As for Paxton, they now have a winning record of 4-3.
Keep an eye on the end zone in Thursday's game as the two teams haven't had much trouble getting there this season. Southwest commands a daunting offense this season, having averaged 5.4 touchdowns per game. However, it's not like Paxton struggles in that department as they've been even better at 6.6 per game. With these two high-octane teams facing off on Thursday, fans should be in for an exciting offensive matchup.
Southwest didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Paxton when the teams last played back in October of 2022, but they still walked away with a 47-42 victory. Does Southwest have another victory up their sleeve, or will Paxton turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
