Two dominant backs in Rob Lanier and James Stampley are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Bloomington Purple Raiders will face off against the Kankakee Kays at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Bloomington is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Saturday. They walked away with a 31-20 victory over Lemont. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Purple Raiders.
Lanier was his usual excellent self, rushing for 172 yards and a touchdown. He showed off some serious burst, turning on the afterburners on one carry for 69 yards.
Another reason for the win was Bloomington's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for three sacks. Justin Robinson was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up two himself.
Meanwhile, Kankakee had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 41 points) and they went ahead and made it nine on Saturday. They never let the Raiders onto the board and left with a 42-0 win. Given the Kays' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois football rankings (they are ranked 21st, while the Raiders are ranked 194th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Stampley continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 180 yards and three touchdowns on only 12 carries. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards.
Kankakee was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 410 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Kankakee didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Ezekiel Sherrod Jr.. Kankakee got some further help from Elijah Faulkner: he picked up two sacks and made four total tackles.
Kankakee pushed their record up to 9-1 with the victory, which was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 7.1 points per game. As for Bloomington, their win bumped their record up to 8-2.
Bloomington didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Kankakee in their previous meeting back in September of 2017, but they still walked away with a 22-16 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Bloomington since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
