Friday Football: Red Oak-Shenandoah face off to start 2A district season

The Red Oak Tigers have a chance to start the district season 1-0, but first they must go down to Shenandoah later in the evening to face the Mustangs.

Red Oak has won five of the last six meetings against Shenandoah. The lone blemish on the mark took place in 2011 when they lost 7-0.

The Tigers had their first non-district win since 2010  when they defeated Riverside 39-0 last week. While penalties were an issue (17 for 147 yards), the running game wasn't.

Brock Isaacson ran for a career-high 312 yards on 24 carries. Isaacson has 417 yards for the season, which puts him first in Class 2A, ahead of Albia's Carter Isley.

The Tigers have 622 yards as a team this season, second behind Clarinda.

Red Oak will also look for more progression from first year starting quarterback Carlos Guerra. The sophomore has three touchdown passes and 138 yards (fourth in 2A-8) thus far this season.

Last week against Riverside, Guerra was 4-for-7 for 50 yards with one touchdown.

Shenandoah is coming off a rough week two loss at home versus Mount Ayr. 

With two season-ending playoff-eliminating losses to the Tigers, Shenandoah is looking to get a win over Red Oak.

The Mustangs look to running back Andrew Gray to have another good game. Gray had 100 yards rushing and one touchdown in last week's loss to Mount Ayr.

One player who Shenandoah will need to step up is quarterback Jake Johnson. Last week against Mount Ayr, Johnson completed 1-of-11 passes. The one pass was for a 44-yard touchdown to Jordan Miller.

Defensively, James Valquier leads Shenandoah, as well as 2A-8 in total tackles with 17.

The only 2-0 team in the district, Clarinda, will be the only team in 2A-8 to have a non-district game for Friday night. The Cardinals face off against AHSTW at Avoca.

Clarinda scored a big non-district win versus Creston, last week. The win was significant for the Cardinals as it was their first against them since 1993.

The other games in 2A-8 will be Kuemper Catholic versus West Central Valley in Stuart and East Sac County versus Southeast Valley.