The West Caldwell Warriors will look to defend their home field on Thursday against the Bandys Trojans at 7:30 p.m. West Caldwell comes in still looking for their first win of the season.
Last Friday, West Caldwell took a serious blow against West Lincoln, falling 54-14. West Caldwell was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 34-7.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Elan Lipford, who threw for 213 yards and two touchdowns. The team also got some help courtesy of Tavion Dula, who picked up 113 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, after only ten points in their last matchup, Bandys made sure to put some points up on the board against Newton-Conover on Friday. Bandys strolled past Newton-Conover with points to spare, taking the game 34-20. Bandys pushed the score to 31-6 by the end of the third, a deficit Newton-Conover cut but never quite recovered from.
Bandys' success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Ian Moore led the charge by rushing for 187 yards and a touchdown while picking up 7.8 yards per carry. Another player making a difference was Brady Swett, who rushed for 20 yards and two touchdowns.
Bandys' defense stepped up as well, laying out the QB three times. Leading the way was Scotty Miley and his two sacks.
West Caldwell's defeat was their seventh straight on the road (dating back to last season), which dropped their overall record down to 0-8. Admittedly, the team was facing some tough opposition over that stretch, including 8-0 Bunker Hill and 5-3 Maiden (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 60% over those games). As for Bandys, their win on Friday bumped their record up to 5-3.
West Caldwell came up short against Bandys in their previous meeting back in October of 2022, falling 35-28. Thankfully for West Caldwell, Nolan Jones (who rushed for 157 yards while picking up 9.8 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
