It’s a Class A showdown in Letts tonight as the KCII Area Game of the Week features two teams vying for their first win of the season. The Highland Huskies hit the road in Week 7 to take on Louisa-Muscatine.
The Highland Huskies are coming off two consecutive shutout defeats at the hands of Pekin and Columbus. In their matchup against the Wildcats, quarterback Sage Hartley-Norman threw 38 passes and completed 15, both career-highs. He found Logan McFarland on seven of those connections for 86 yards, while also leading Highland with 4.5 tackles in the loss.
Entering tonight, the Huskies average just over one touchdown and 163 yards per game. Hartley-Norman is 43/92 on the season, throwing for 454 yards, three touchdowns, and eight interceptions. While he’s been the top rusher for Highland this year as well, additional production has come from McFarland, Colten Sypherd, and Jose Ramirez. Ayden Havel has caught a team-high 16 passes for 263 yards and leads the Huskies with three receiving scores. The Highland defense allows 45 points per game, but has produced eight takeaways. Along with a fumble recovery, McFarland is responsible for 40 tackles, more than double the next-closest Husky defender.
Highland Head Coach, Cory Quail, spoke with KCII this week about the similarities between these two teams, and what the Huskies need to accomplish to come away victorious. “They have a talented group, but they’re also very young so I think it’s going to be a tough battle. Executing your job, that’s been a huge issue for us the last three weeks and so this week we wanna make sure we’re disciplined, do what our one job is and if we do that we think we have some chances for success.”
Louisa-Muscatine seeks its first win not only this year, but since the 2020 season. Coming off a loss to Columbus last week, the Falcons average just under seven points per game, while allowing 47. Their offense is led by junior Finnegan Cline, who is 13/37 throwing the ball for 259 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. Similar to Hartley-Norman, Cline leads the Falcons in rush attempts and ground yards as well. Seniors Jesse Reinier and Parker Stender have been consistently active on both sides of the ball. Both have at least 25 carries, 100 rush yards, one touchdown, and three receptions. Stender is also the L-M leading tackler with 32.
These two teams haven’t met since playing back to back seasons in 2016 and 2017, which they split. As the Huskies and Falcons both look to get one in the win column, you can hear tonight’s game on the new KCII3 Stream, with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m., and kickoff at 7.