The Howe Bulldogs will take on the Leonard Tigers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Howe is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 56-14 victory over S & S Consolidated on the road. The team's explosion on offense also rewarded the Bulldogs with their most commanding win of the season.
Howe got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Rylan Strong out in front who threw for 200 yards and four touchdowns while completing 77.8% of his passes, and also rushed for 111 yards and a touchdown on only eight carries. Strong got the majority of those rushing yards when he took off on a run that went for an incredible 65 yards. Riken Cross was Strong's top target, picking up 153 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Howe was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 367 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Howe wouldn't let S & S Consolidated keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Howe can thank Kendall O'Brien and Alex Mejia for forcing both of them.
Meanwhile, Leonard entered their tilt with Callisburg on Friday with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. They took down the Wildcats 43-29. The Tigers pushed the score to 43-21 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wildcats cut but never quite recovered from.
Howe's victory ended a five-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 3-2. As for Leonard, they pushed their record up to 4-1 with the win, which was their third straight at home.
Howe took a serious blow against Leonard when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 56-22. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Leonard's Jacoby Lacook, who threw for 302 yards and three touchdowns while completing 73.7% of his passes, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. Now that Howe knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
