The Wall Hawks will challenge the Merkel Badgers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Wall has four straight victories, Merkel has six straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Last Friday, everything went Wall's way against Idalou as Wall made off with a 33-10 win. The Hawks might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three games by 21 points or more this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Wall to victory, but perhaps none more so than Thomas Leanos, who rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown while picking up 7.3 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave Leanos a new career-high in rushing yards.
Wall didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Briggs Jones, Ethan Michalewicz, and Garrett Guy picked up one apiece. Guy is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last five games he's played dating back to last season. Dylan Sellers was another major factor on D, making 12 total tackles (1.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Wall was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 248 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Friday just wasn't the day for Merkel's offense. They took a blow against Trinity Christian on Friday, falling 34-0. The match marked the first time this season in which the Badgers were not able to get on the board.
Wall's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 5-1. As for Merkel, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-6.
Wall strolled past Merkel when the teams last played back in November of 2015 by a score of 36-21. Will Wall repeat their success, or does Merkel have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
