The Oak Hills Highlanders will face off against the Hamilton Big Blue at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Last Friday, Oak Hills lost to Lakota East at home by a 24-6 margin. While losing is never fun, the Highlanders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio football rankings (they are ranked 143rd, while the Thunderhawks are ranked 35th).
Meanwhile, Hamilton came tearing into Friday's contest with six straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 26.5 points) and they left with even more momentum. They claimed a resounding 50-3 victory over the Aviators. The match marked the Big Blue's most dominant win of the season.
It was another big night for Gracen Goldsmith, who rushed for 163 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 10.2 yards per carry. He really tore up the turf during one magnificent 76-yard run. The team also got some help courtesy of Andre Bailey, who rushed for 55 yards and a touchdown.
Hamilton wouldn't let Sycamore keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. It was truly a group effort as Ja?Kwon Oatis, Trey Verdon, and Bailey picked up one apiece. Verdon has been hot recently, having also posted five or more total tackles the last four times he's played. Hamilton got some further help from Chris Bryant: he made nine total tackles (3.5 for loss).
Hamilton was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 242 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 175 rushing yards in five consecutive games.
Oak Hills now has a losing record at 5-6. As for Hamilton, they pushed their record up to 8-2 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home.
Oak Hills was dealt a bruising 34-7 defeat at the hands of Hamilton in their previous meeting back in September. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Hamilton's Rj Shepherd, who picked up 77 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Now that Oak Hills knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
