The Martinsville Bluestreaks will square off against the Oblong Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, these teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Martinsville is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Illinois' top teams: Metro-East Lutheran, who was ranked fifth at the time (Martinsville was ranked 18th). The Bluestreaks were beaten by the Knights 70-40 on Friday.
Martinsville might have lost, but man, Gabe Griffin was a machine: he rushed for 156 yards and one touchdown on only 14 carries, and also threw for 60 yards and one TD.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Oblong). They breezed past Hutsonville/Palestine to the tune of 54-16 on Friday. The victory continues a trend for the Panthers in their matchups with the Tigers: they've now won five in a row.
Oblong's win came from a few key players Martinsville will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Lucas Blessing, who rushed for 221 yards and four scores while picking up 12.3 yards per carry. He really tore up the turf during one magnificent 80-yard run. Wyatt Snider was another key player, rushing for 154 yards and three touchdowns on only 11 carries.
They were just one part of a punishing run game: Oblong was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 440 rushing yards. They are 2-1 when they've run for more than 200 yards.
Oblong didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Caden Goodwin and Snider.
Oblong's win was their first in the conference, bumping their conference record up to 1-2 and their overall record up to 3-4. As for Martinsville, they now have a losing record of 3-4.
Everything came up roses for Martinsville against Oblong in their previous matchup back in September of 2024, as the team secured a 54-14 victory. In that matchup, the Bluestreaks amassed a halftime lead of 32-8, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
