Marian Catholic is 2-8 against Minersville since September of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. Marian Catholic will square off against the Minersville Battlin' Miners at 6:00 p.m. Marian Catholic's defense has only allowed 14.6 points per game this season, so Minersville's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Marian Catholic is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 47 points last Friday, they were much more limited against Mahanoy Area on Saturday. The match between them and the Golden Bears wasn't particularly close, with Marian Catholic falling 26-7. That makes it the first time this season Marian Catholic has let down their home crowd.
Despite the defeat, Marian Catholic saw an underclassman step up: Rory Dixon rushed for 144 yards and a touchdown. Dixon's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 131 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Even if they lost, Marian Catholic's defense still kept up the pressure with three sacks. Leading the way was Chase Hower with two.
Meanwhile, Minersville scored the most points they've had all season on Thursday, but it wasn't enough. They came up short against Schuylkill Haven, falling 72-52. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Friday (36), the Battlin' Miners still had to take the loss.
Despite the loss, Minersville got top-tier performance from Dante Carr, who rushed for 143 yards and four touchdowns on only 13 carries, and also threw for 403 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 14.9 yards per attempt. Carr's longest rush was for an impressive 55 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. Another player making a difference was Paiten LaPoint, who picked up 166 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Minersville wouldn't let Schuylkill Haven keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Minersville can thank Owen Fortna and Jake Kavanaugh for forcing both of them.
Marian Catholic's defeat dropped their record down to 3-2. As for Minersville, their loss ended a six-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 3-2.
The upcoming game will be a clash of competing strengths. Marian Catholic has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 183.8 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Minersville has preferred to attack from the air: they average 268 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Marian Catholic ended up a good deal behind Minersville in their previous meeting back in November of 2023, losing 28-12. Thankfully for Marian Catholic, Luke Stevenosky (who rushed for 175 yards and a touchdown while picking up 8.0 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
