The Airline Vikings will be defending their home-field for the first time this season they go up against the Benton Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Benton took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on Airline, who comes in off a win.
Airline is coming home in high spirits after they had to open their season on the road against Barbe. Airline narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past Barbe 52-49. Given the Vikings' advantage in MaxPreps' Louisiana football rankings (they are ranked 35th, while the Buccaneers are ranked 89th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
A big part of the victory came down to the chemistry between Ben Taylor and his top target Kenny Darby. Taylor threw for 490 yards and four touchdowns while completing 77.4% of his passes while Darby picked up 315 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The dominant performance gave him a new career- in total yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Micah Johnson, who gained 69 total yards and two touchdowns.
Airline wouldn't let Barbe keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. Airline can thank Lane Plunkett and Luke Boyter for forcing all of them. Airline got some further help from Jaydan Gladney: he made ten total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, Benton didn't have quite enough to beat Northwood on Thursday and fell 24-21. The loss was the Tigers' first of the season.
Everything went Airline's way against Benton in their previous meeting back in September of 2023 as Airline made off with a 60-35 win. Will Airline repeat their success, or does Benton have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
