The Chesterton Trojans will head out to challenge the Merrillville Pirates at 8:00 p.m. on Friday.
Chesterton is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Crown Point just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Friday. They were dealt a 48-10 defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs. While losing is never fun, the Trojans can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Indiana football rankings (they are ranked 70th, while the Bulldogs are ranked tenth).
Meanwhile, Merrillville waltzed into their game on Friday with four straight wins... but they left with five. They put the hurt on the Indians with a sharp 42-18 win. The Pirates might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won six matchups by 21 points or more this season.
Merrillville's win came from a few key players Chesterton will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Michael Hill Jr, who threw for 298 yards and three touchdowns, and also punched in one score on the ground. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in passer rating (126.8). Jacquarious Johnson helped Hill Jr out on the ground, rushing for 126 yards and one TD while picking up 7.4 yards per carry, and also catching one touchdown.
Chesterton's loss dropped their record down to 5-3. As for Merrillville, their victory bumped their record up to 6-2.
Chesterton came up short against Merrillville in their previous matchup back in October of 2024, falling 29-23. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of the Pirates' Cameron Jordan, who rushed for 133 yards and four scores. Now that the Trojans know the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
