Friday Night Lights.

The Wildkits hope to carry their momentum when they travel to Glenview this Friday to take on the Glenbrook South Spartans in an inter-conference matchup.

The Wildkits are back on the W train after beating Niles West 42-35 in a thrilling homecoming game. The game was capped off by an interception by Senior middle linebacker Charlie Krause, which sealed the win for the Wildkits after four competitive quarters against the Wolves. Senior Ben Easington rushed for 335 yards on 43 attempts in his only sixth career game at running back.

“They were doing a lot of trash talking, which really fired me up to running even faster and hit even harder,” Easington said about the inspiration for his dazzling Friday night performance.

Junior quarterback Drew Dawkins threw for 79 yards, as well as throwing a pair of touchdowns.

The Wildkits come into Friday’s game against Glenbrook South with a chip on their shoulder. The Spartans have struggled this season and have yet to win a game, starting the season with an 0-6 record. Much of Glenbrook South’s struggles are due to the inexperience the team has on both sides of the ball. Many of the starters for last year’s defense have graduated, and both the offensive and defensive line experienced massive changes.

“We can’t ever overlook a team,” Senior Charlie Krause said. “We need to have a good week in practice and come prepared on Friday night.”

Sophomore Malik Ross, who missed last weeks game due to an ankle injury suffered in practice earlier in the week, is expected to return to the Wildkits for this game. Also senior Joe Downie and Montell Wilburn will be seeing a lot more field time this week after missing the last couple weeks due to minor shoulder injuries.

The offensive line will need to continue their strong performance in order to create gaps and holes for running backs Easington and Wilburn. Seniors Morgan Brown and Christian Nielsen have shown great leadership this year commanding both the defensive and offensive line. Junior Tre Dawkins, who is competing in his second varsity season, is also doing a very dominant job on both sides of the ball.

The Wildkits key to success this Friday will be creating space for their running backs to accelerate in, as well as control the Spartans running and passing game. If the Wildkits can do both of those things, they should not have a problem walking out with a win and improving to 5-2.