At 7:30 on Friday night Bear River High School's varsity football team will play host to Colfax and its record setting quarterback Michael Wilson who threw for 7 touchdowns this past Friday night. Both the Bruins and the Falcons will strap on their helmets under the lights with 5-0 records for their first Pioneer Valley League contest.
The two teams play very different styles of football. The Bruins play hard nosed smash mouth football behind senior fullback Brad Botsford (5-feet-11 and 180 lbs). Botsford leads the PVL in scoring by a running-back with over 14 points per game. On the defensive side of the ball the Bruins are led by junior linebacker John Voter III who is ranked 9th in the PVL in tackles, averaging just under 6 per game. Voter is ranked 2nd in the league with two interceptions, both of which resulted in touchdowns.
The Falcons are a West-coast style offensive team where they throw the ball a lot. Wilson (5-feet-11, 170 lbs) has thrown the ball 156 times which has resulted in 19 touchdowns, while running the ball 104 times for only 3 TDs.
Bear River's opponents have overall records of 9-19 while Colfax's opponents hold an overall record of 7-19. Both teams did defeated Union Mine (BR 26-7), (C 49-7) as well as Woodland (BR 35-7), (C 30-0) in the preseason action. As you can see both teams have the same win-loss record, their opponents have similar overall records and they both defeated the same opponents with which resulted in similar scores.
The Bruins were tested this past weekend by Eureka High School in their come from behind 27-23. Eureka threw for 177 yards with 2 TDs while rushing for 124 yards and 1 TD. The Bruins will need to play strong pass defense against the pass happy Falcons or it could be a high scoring affair.
Colfax had a close game when they played Argonaut giving up 20 points in week 1. In that contest the Falcons gave up 352 yards on the ground and only 52 threw the air. The Falcons will need to find a way to stop Bear River's running game as they have scored 17 touchdowns by running the ball, (12 by Botsford) and only 6 by way of the aerial attack.
What often happens in high school football is, if a team is a good offensive running team (Bear River) then their defense practices against the run and has better skill sets come game day. While it also works the other way. If you have a prolific passing team (Colfax) your defense can be run on.
Statistically both team's offenses are capable of taking control of the game but it is the defenses that will be tested on Friday night. Bear River will look to run the clock with its running game. This strategy would keep Wilson off the field which would result in a lower scoring game while Colfax will attempt to get the Bruins involved in a track meet.
The team with the fewest penalties wins the game.
You and your opponent have the same conference record will receive one share of the conference during the season, then lost ... if you get second place.
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