Bloomington has gone 5-0 against Urbana recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Bloomington Purple Raiders will challenge the Urbana Tigers at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Bloomington has four straight wins, Urbana has 13 straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Bloomington is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 48-16 victory over Normal West on the road. Given the Purple Raiders' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois football rankings (they are ranked 79th, while the Wildcats are ranked 202nd), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Rob Lanier was his usual excellent self, rushing for 172 yards and a touchdown while picking up 7.5 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. The team also got some help courtesy of AJ Codron, who threw for 110 yards and three touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Bloomington was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 295 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Bloomington's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged two passes before it was all said and done. The picks came courtesy of Juan Rivera and Mikey Kimmell.
Meanwhile, Urbana was beaten by Champaign Central 59-6 on Friday. The Tigers were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 49-6.
Bloomington's win bumped their record up to 4-0. As for Urbana, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-4.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's matchup: Bloomington has been on an offensive roll this season, having averaged 415.3 total yards per game. It's a different story for Urbana, though, as they've been averaging only 172.2. Will Bloomington be able to march up the field at their leisure again, or will Urbana flip the script?
Bloomington barely slipped by Urbana in their previous matchup back in September of 2021, winning 1-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Bloomington since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
