Football Preview: Norland Vikings vs. Cocoa Tigers
Two dominant signal callers in Ennio Yapoor and Brady Hart are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Norland Vikings are on the road again on Friday to play the Cocoa Tigers at 7:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Norland is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They took their game on the road on Friday with ease, bagging a 49-16 victory over Archbishop McCarthy. The result was nothing new for the Vikings, who have now won three matchups by 26 points or more so far this season.
Yapoor was his usual excellent self, throwing for 358 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 12.8 yards per attempt. Dawson Quarterman also helped with two touchdowns in total.
Norland's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged two passes before it was all said and done. The picks came courtesy of Kenton Dopson Iii and Jaden Daniels. Norland got some further help from Michael Smith: he picked up a sack and made six total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, Cocoa faced Venice in a battle between two of the state's top teams last Friday. Cocoa fell just short of Venice by a score of 54-51. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game back in September (39), the Tigers still had to take the loss.
Cocoa's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Hart, who threw for 527 yards and four touchdowns while completing 71.1% of his passes, and Jayvan Boggs, who picked up 253 receiving yards and three touchdowns. With that strong performance, Hart is now averaging an impressive 345.2 passing yards per game. Nicholas Teeter also helped out as he racked up 157 receiving yards.
Norland's win bumped their record up to 4-1. As for Cocoa, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-2.
Friday's contest might be decided in the trenches. Norland has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 177.4 rushing yards per game. It's a different story for Cocoa, though, as they've been averaging only 68.2. How will they fare against such a dominant running game? Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
