One final homecoming contest awaits on the KCII3 Stream this season, and that contest kicks off tonight in Riverside between the Highland Huskies and the Louisa-Muscatine Falcons.

The Huskies of Highland will hope to celebrate a homecoming victory at the end of the night. Highland enters tonight 2-4 overall and 1-4 in Class A District 5 after last week’s senior night loss to Pekin 61-13. Freshman Caleb Wheeler and Sophomore Garrett Beeson recorded the only touchdowns on the night for the Huskies. Beeson ended the night as the leader in tackles with eight, and fellow Sophomore Jose Ramirez finished the night with two-and-a-half sacks along with three tackles-for-loss. This season, Highland puts up just over 13 points-per-game and gives up nearly 29. The Huskies have surpassed 300 yards passing this season, and have amassed nearly 900 yards on the ground. The red and white have been especially opportunistic on defense, having recorded 14 turnovers. They also boast 243-and-a-half tackles, 11-and-a-half sacks, and 34-and-a-half tackles for loss. Highland has made two of their four field goals this season, and five of their eight PAT’s.

Louisa-Muscatine will arrive in Riverside a winless 0-6 on the season and an 0-5 mark in Class A District 5 after a 54-0 loss at home to Columbus last week. The Falcons gave up 177 yards passing and 107 on the ground to the Wildcats. L&M’s best offensive output came against Van Buren County two weeks ago when they put up 20 points and finished with 221 total yards, 196 of those on the ground. In that game, Sedric Lamb went 2/8 for 25 yards, and three of his passes were intercepted. Sophomore running back Gaije Carter carried the rock 18 times for 113 yards and two scores. Defensively, Owen Pugh and Noah McCleary combined for three turnovers. Senior Cody McKim added a kickoff return touchdown. As a team, the Falcons put up a shade over five points-per-game and give up close to 52. The Falcons have thrown for just over 100 yards this season, and have racked up over 500 rushing yards. Louisa-Muscatine has tallied over 150 stops this season defensively, along with over 20 tackles-for-loss. The yellow and black have also captured over five turnovers this season.

Highland Head Coach Cory Quail joined us this past Saturday on the KCII Radio Coaches Corner to talk about what his team needs to improve on after their game against Pekin in order to secure a homecoming victory. “We just aren’t executing to the level that we were at the beginning of the year when we were showing we could play some pretty good football. We’re still working for the first winning season in Highland football in five years since I was here in 2019. We’re trying to do something new for this program. We have guys who have worked their tail off, and new guys coming out and putting in the time and effort to be a part of this. We have opportunities, but we have to get back to executing like we were at the beginning of the year,” Quail said. 

In the Varsity Bound era, Highland owns the all-time series between these two teams 2-1 dating back to 2016, including last season’s narrow 20-18 victory on October 6th that gave them their first victory in almost two seasons.

You can hear all of the homecoming action live tonight between Highland and Louisa-Muscatine streaming exclusively online at KCIIRadio.com on the KCII3 Stream beginning with the pregame show at 6:30, and kickoff at 7 p.m. from Riverside.