Football Preview: Oak Grove Warriors vs. Ocean Springs Greyhounds
The Oak Grove Warriors are on the road again on Friday to play the Ocean Springs Greyhounds at 7:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Oak Grove is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They took down Biloxi 34-20. Given the Warriors' advantage in MaxPreps' Mississippi football rankings (they are ranked sixth, while the Indians are ranked 40th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Ocean Springs waltzed into their game on Friday with five straight wins... but they left with six. They walked away with a 24-17 victory over the Cougars.
It was another big night for Will Smith, who rushed for 179 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 9.4 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Lucas Sinopoli was in the mix as well, providing Ocean Springs with a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Ocean Springs' defense and their five sacks. Leading the way was Bryant Ausmer with three. Ocean Springs is 5-1 when Ausmer posts two or more sacks, but 2-3 otherwise. Ocean Springs got some further help from Brody Saenz: he picked up a sack and made nine total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Oak Grove has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-3 record this season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 39.3 points per game. As for Ocean Springs, they pushed their record up to 7-4 with the win, which was their third straight at home.
Oak Grove strolled past Ocean Springs in their previous meeting back in September by a score of 35-21. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Ocean Springs' Sharroid Whitehead, who rushed for 197 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 10.9 yards per carry. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Oak Grove still be able to contain Whitehead? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
