Decatur and Athens are an even 5-5 against one another since September of 2014, but not for long. The Decatur Red Raiders will square off against the Athens Golden Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Decatur is headed into the contest out to prove that what happened against Cullman on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Decatur was outmatched by Cullman at home and fell 42-14. While losing is never fun, the Red Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Alabama football rankings (they are ranked 226th, while the Bearcats are ranked 104th).
Despite the loss, Decatur had strong showings from Isaiah Allen, who rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries, and Devin Haley, who rushed for 56 yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Athens, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Friday. They never let Columbia onto the board and left with a 54-0 victory on Thursday. The match marked the Golden Eagles' most dominant win of the season.
This is the second loss in a row for Decatur and nudges their season record down to 2-7. As for Athens, they pushed their record up to 6-2 with the victory, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season.
Decatur was dealt a bruising 44-16 defeat at the hands of Athens in their previous matchup back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Athens' Brogan Gross, who threw for 236 yards and two touchdowns on only 16 passes. Now that Decatur knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
