A pair of teams in search of their first win on the young football season will meet Friday in Wapello when the Indians welcome the Highland Huskies south. Highland is 0-1 on the season after a tough loss in week one to Wilton 36-30. In that contest and for the season, the Huskies are led by Connor Grinstead through the air at five of eight for 51 yards. His favorite target is Owen Donovan who made a pair of grabs in the game against the Beavers. On the ground Grinstead also owns the team lead with 183 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. Donovan eclipsed the century mark on the ground against the Beavers with 18 carries for 130 yards and two scores. Defensively, Grinstead had nine stops, eight of them solo, while Luke Miller recorded an interception and a fumble recovery.
Wapello is 0-1 on the year after a week two loss to Mediapolis 34-24 to open their season. In the loss, Tade Parsons led the way for Wapello going 14 of 29 through the air for 185 yards. His favorite target was Evan Ross with seven grabs for 114 yards and a touchdown. Jake Gustison had 16 carries for 56 yards on the ground. Ross got involved in the ground game as well with a pair of carries for 40 yards, including a 36 yard touchdown run. The Indian defense was led by Caleb Ealey with six and a half stops. Griffin Mears and Maddox Griffin each had one interception for the Indian secondary. This week, Highland head coach Scott Morel talked about how his team has used the last two weeks to prepare for the Indians. “Tuesday, we were working on the little things. Wednesday and Thursday we still went hard. Friday, we were wanting to play. Wapello has some size on the line. They have a nice quarterback in Parsons. If they get on you up front they are going to make some holes. We need to move our feet up front. We need to be precise with everything we do. We need to make sure we hit the holes, because they are a sound team.”
Wapello has won all four meetings between these two schools in the last decade including their most recent contest a 44-8 Indian win in 2017. Action starts at 7p.m. on Senior Night in Wapello.