The Newport - Bellevue Knights will head out to square off against the Hazen Highlanders at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are strolling into their contests after big wins in their previous games.
Last Friday, Newport - Bellevue made easy work of Redmond and carried off a 45-20 victory. Given the Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' Washington football rankings (they are ranked 111th, while the Mustangs are ranked 225th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Cole Oliver was his usual excellent self, throwing for 289 yards and three touchdowns while completing 88% of his passes, and also rushing for 50 yards and a touchdown.
They were just one part of a punishing run game: Newport - Bellevue was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 209 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.
Newport - Bellevue didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. Leading the way was Brayden Howard and his an interception.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Hazen). They simply couldn't be stopped on Saturday as they easily beat Renton 69-20 on the road. The matchup was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 49-14.
The win made it two in a row for Newport - Bellevue and bumps their season record up to 5-2. As for Hazen, the victory (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 5-2.
Newport - Bellevue and Hazen were almost perfectly matched up in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, but Newport - Bellevue suffered an agonizing 14-13 defeat. Can Newport - Bellevue avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
