Grand Rapids and North Branch are an even 5-5 against one another since October of 2017, but not for long. The Grand Rapids Thunderhawks will head out on the road to face off against the North Branch Vikings at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Last Tuesday, Grand Rapids made easy work of Cloquet and carried off a 48-22 victory.
Meanwhile, North Branch had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 21.2 points), and they went ahead and made it seven last Wednesday. They blew past Cloquet 44-7 on the road. Given North Branch's advantage in MaxPreps' Minnesota football rankings (they are ranked 64th, while Cloquet is ranked 208th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
North Branch's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Carter Drill, who rushed for 175 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. North Branch also got a significant boost from Lavonte Fisher, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 89 yards.
Grand Rapids now has a winning record of 5-4. As for North Branch, their victory was their seventh straight on the road, which bumped their overall record up to 7-1.
Grand Rapids came up short against North Branch when the teams last played on October 6th, falling 28-21. Can Grand Rapids avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
