Dragons, Tigers meet in all-important conference showdown

ABERDEEN — The Aberdeen Tigers, winners of three in a row, and Malad Dragons, winners of four in a row, meet at Aberdeen High School Friday night in the East Idaho Sports District 5 Game of the Week.

The winner will keep pace with the undefeated conference-leading West Side Pirates (7-0, 2-0), who beat Marsh Valley (0-7, 0-3) in a Thursday night conference showdown.

Malad (4-2, 2-0) has won its last four games, including back-to-back in-conference victories over Soda Springs (2-4, 0-2) and Marsh Valley, by 70 combined points.

The Dragons are led by their do-everything star Easton Green, who has thrown for 515 yards and six touchdowns through six games. He is also second on the team with 280 rushing yards and leads the state with nine interceptions.

Aberdeen (4-2, 1-0) has won its last three games by much tighter margins, 27 combined points, including a 13-6 conference victory over the Eagles.

The Tigers have won their last 14 meetings with the Dragons.

Malad’s last victory over Aberdeen came on Oct. 14, 2011.

The two conference foes with identical records are also matched in the MaxPreps rankings. Aberdeen is currently the No. 10-ranked team in the 3A division according to MaxPreps, which is used to determined playoff seeding, while Malad is No. 11.

Though both teams will still take their crack at the Pirates for a conference title, Friday’s loser could be eliminated from contention for a state tournament at-large bid.

The game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m.