Football Preview: Cloverdale Clovers vs. South Decatur Cougars
The Cloverdale Clovers will take on the South Decatur Cougars at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Cloverdale's defense has only allowed 15.4 points per game this season, so South Decatur's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Cloverdale's usually-dominant defense will be looking to make up for Friday's struggle, when North Putnam offense got past them. Cloverdale took a 37-26 hit to the loss column at the hands of North Putnam on Friday. The Clovers have struggled against the Cougars recently, as their game on Friday was their ninth consecutive lost matchup.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask South Decatur). They blew past Crimson Knights 53-12 at home on Friday. The victory was nothing new for the Cougars as they're now sitting on three straight.
Corbin Johnson was his usual excellent self, rushing for 278 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 13.9 yards per carry. He really tore up the turf during one magnificent 81-yard run.
South Decatur's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged five passes before it was all said and done. Johnson led the group effort, picking up three of those interceptions all by himself. That's the most rushing yards he has posted since back in September of 2023.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, South Decatur was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 326 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 183 rushing yards in four consecutive contests.
The loss snapped Cloverdale's winning streak at three games and leaves them with a 3-2 record. As for South Decatur, they now also have a winning record of 3-2.
Cloverdale lost to South Decatur at home by a decisive 27-13 margin in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Johnson, who rushed for 375 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 14.4 yards per carry. Now that Cloverdale knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
