West Jefferson is preparing for their first conference matchup of the season on Friday. They will be playing at home against the Northeastern Jets at 7:00 p.m. Both teams are still undefeated after five games, but that won't be the case come Friday.
Last Friday, West Jefferson was fully in charge, breezing past Catholic Central 41-7. Considering the Roughriders have won three contests by more than 33 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Austin Buescher continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 415 yards and five TDs, while also punching in one touchdown on the ground. West Jefferson's leading receiver Ethan Friessen was Buescher's top target yet again, picking up 111 receiving yards and one score.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Northeastern). They blew past Madison Plains, posting a 60-18 victory. The final result isn't all that surprising considering the Jets' considerable advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio football rankings (they are ranked 194th, while the Golden Eagles are ranked 639th).
Northeastern had a senior duo take command as Diezel Taylor threw for 403 yards and seven touchdowns while completing 83.3% of his passes and Jacoby Newman picked up 277 receiving yards and five TDs. Thanks to that big game, Newman is now up to 12 receiving touchdowns on the season. The team also got some help courtesy of Kaleb Moone, who picked up 100 receiving yards and a pair of scores.
Northeastern's win bumped their record up to 5-0. As for West Jefferson, their victory bumped their record up to an identical 5-0.
The upcoming game will be a clash of competing strengths. West Jefferson has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 269.2 passing yards per game. Northeastern, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 214.8 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
West Jefferson took a serious blow against Northeastern in their previous meeting back in October of 2024, falling 40-13. That matchup was all but decided by halftime, at which point the Roughriders were down 26-0.
