The Sugar-Salem Diggers will face off against the Kimberly Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Sugar-Salem's defense has only allowed 8.2 points per game this season, so Kimberly's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Sugar-Salem is probably headed into the match with a chip on their shoulder considering Star Valley just ended the team's 14-game winning streak dating back to last season on Friday. They fell to the Braves 27-21. That makes it the first time this season the Diggers have let down their home crowd.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Dawson Mcinelly, who rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Kimball Tonks, who rushed for 34 yards and two touchdowns.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Sugar-Salem was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 246 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 164 rushing yards in 15 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
Even if they lost, Sugar-Salem's defense still kept up the pressure with three sacks. In that department, Ben Aldrich was the leader with two.
Meanwhile, Kimberly entered their matchup against Homedale on Friday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. Kimberly lost 47-21 to Homedale.
Having lost for the first time this season, Sugar-Salem fell to 3-1. As for Kimberly, their defeat ended a seven-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 1-3.
Sugar-Salem beat Kimberly 35-27 in their previous meeting back in November of 2020. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Kimberly's Heath Owens, who threw for 141 yards and two touchdowns, and also rushed for 36 yards and a touchdown. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Sugar-Salem to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
