McKinley and Girard are an even 5-5 against one another since August of 2014, but not for long. The McKinley Red Dragons will square off against the Girard Indians at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. McKinley's offense hasn't had much luck over their past six matchups, but Friday's match will give them a chance to turn things around.
McKinley's offense might be in the hot seat on Friday considering what happened against Struthers on Friday. They were dealt a 53-0 loss at the hands of the Wildcats. While losing is never fun, the Red Dragons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio football rankings (they are ranked 509th, while the Wildcats are ranked 111th).
Meanwhile, after only six points in their last contest, Girard made sure to put some points up on the board against Hubbard on Friday. Girard blew past Hubbard, posting a 45-6 victory at home. With that win, the Indians brought their scoring average up to 26.3 points per game.
A big part of Girard's victory came down to the chemistry between Dominick Tolone and his top target Mykel Collier. Tolone threw for 156 yards and two touchdowns on only 14 passes while Collier picked up 126 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Collier is becoming a predictor of Girard's success: when he posts at least two receiving touchdowns the team is 3-1 (and 2-3 when he doesn't).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Girard was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 290 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.
McKinley's defeat dropped their record down to 1-8. As for Girard, they now have a winning record of 5-4.
Everything went McKinley's way against Girard in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, as McKinley made off with a 48-28 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for McKinley 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
