BY HUNTER DONELSON

You look at sports history and one of the most exciting things to see are rivalry games.

Red Sox-Yankees, Celtics-Lakers, Chiefs-Raiders, Warriors-Cavaliers. We can all think of a moment between these rivals that we remember right? For us, here in Independence, it’s the Truman Patriots and William Chrisman Bears.

Tonight the Patriots football team will hit the road to play cross-town rival William Chrisman. Neither team has started this season great, but perhaps this could be the turnaround game they need.

Chrisman is 1-3 with a win against Oak Park, but suffered three blowout losses to Blue Springs, North Kansas City, and Raytown. On the other side, Truman has an overall record of 0-4 with losses to Staley, Liberty North, St.Joseph Central, and Liberty.

Throughout recent history the two teams have been equal as the Patriots won back-to-back Wagon Wheels in 2014 and 2015 by a combined 35 points. Then Chrisman made their own run at it, winning in each of the last two years by a combined 48 points.

Although the circumstances are different when playing your biggest rival, the way teams get ready for it may not change. “Compared with how we play other schools, we don’t change the way we prepare much. But we definitely keep the fact that it’s against Chrisman in the back of our head,” said quarterback, Carter Brown.

The Bears are a very run-oriented team so the Patriots will need to be at their best to shut them down early and not give up too many yards on the ground. If they can do that, their chances of winning this football game will increase dramatically.

Even though Truman may not be having the best season, this win against Chrisman at their house would be the best thing that’s happened for the school all year. It will be a great match-up as the teams are about as even as they’ve ever been throughout the last five seasons.