STORY BY: JORDAN MESEROLE
When the ball flies into the air Friday night in Montgomery for week eight district matchup between the Rudder Rangers and the Montgomery Bears, the teams will be playing for two different goals: the Rangers to cap off their season on a positive note, and the Bears trying to maintain their second place ranking heading into the playoffs.
Montgomery (5-3, 5-1 District 18-4A) enters Friday night coming off a bye week, and a 41-18 victory over Willis the week prior, in which the Bears’ running backs accounted for 368 yards on the ground and five touchdowns. Montgomery averages 213.5 rushing yards per game, and is led two strong backs – senior Dedrick Linton who has 832 yards on the season and sophomore Aui Allen who has another 558 for the Bears.
Rudder (3-6, 3-4) is coming off a 26-20 victory over Willis last week, in which the Rangers racked up 403 rushing yards. Leading the way for the last time this season will be senior running back Tre Guyton, who continues to lead the District 18-4A with 1440 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. Senior Llelwyn Boswell will once again be under center for only his second game of the season in the place of the injured Luke Piper. Though Boswell only completed three passes in the win against Willis, many of his throws were on target, and Rangers’ head coach C. M. Pier said he expects to see an even better performance from Boswell Friday now that the first game jitters are gone.
The road game will end Rudder’s seasons, as the Rangers have a bye week next week and have been eliminated from playoff contention. The Bears will have one more game next week against Magnolia before entering the playoffs as the likely two seed.
Kickoff for Friday’s game in Montgomery is set for 7:30 pm.