The Merkel Badgers will look to defend their home field on Friday against the Wall Hawks at 7:00 p.m. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Merkel has struggled recently with six defeats in a row, while Wall will arrive with four straight victories.
Merkel's offense might be in the hot seat on Friday considering what happened against Trinity Christian on Friday. They were beaten by the Lions 34-0. The game marked the first time this year in which the Badgers were not able to get on the board.
Meanwhile, Wall made easy work of Idalou on Friday and carried off a 33-10 win. The match marked the Hawks' most dominant victory of the season so far.
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. Wall got some further help from Dylan Sellers: he made 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.
Merkel's loss dropped their record down to 0-6. As for Wall, their win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 5-1.
Merkel ended up a good deal behind Wall in their previous meeting back in November of 2015, losing 36-21. Can Merkel avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
