Dakota has been on the road for three straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. They will welcome the Utica Chieftains at 7:00 p.m. Dakota is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 34.3 points per game this season.
Dakota is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Michigan's top teams: Oxford, who was ranked 20th in their home state at the time (Dakota was ranked third). Dakota claimed a resounding 28-0 win over Oxford. The Cougars might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won seven games by 24 points or more this season.
Dakota had a senior duo take command as Jadon Ford threw for 187 yards and two touchdowns and Chase Thornton picked up 104 receiving yards and a touchdown. Thornton really caught the secondary sleeping when he pulled down a catch that went for 73 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Dakota's defense and their six sacks. Oxford's QB won't forget Logan Criteser anytime soon given he sacked him 2.5 times. Dakota got some further help from Brady Hamby: he made 12 total tackles (1.0 for loss) and defended a pass.
Utica never got on the board in their matchup two weeks ago, but that sure wasn't the case in their game against Cousino last Friday. They came out on top against the Patriots by a score of 31-21.
Dakota's victory bumped their record up to 8-1. As for Utica, their win bumped their record up to 4-5.
Everything came up roses for Dakota against Utica when the teams last played two weeks ago, as the squad secured a 35-0 victory. Will Dakota repeat their success, or does Utica have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
