Football Preview: Lakewood Leopards vs. North Duplin Rebels
Lakewood and North Duplin are an even 5-5 against one another since October of 2015, but not for long. The Lakewood Leopards will square off against the North Duplin Rebels at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Lakewood is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They breezed by Pamlico County to the tune of 56-7. With the Leopards ahead 42-0 at the half, the match was all but over already.
Meanwhile, North Duplin put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They took their matchup with ease, bagging a 35-8 win over East Bladen.
Carell Phillips continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 234 yards and three touchdowns on only 15 carries. Phillips is crushing it when it comes to rushing yards: he's rushed for at least 100 every time he's taken the field this season.
North Duplin was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 338 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 161 rushing yards in 22 consecutive games dating back to last season.
North Duplin pushed their record up to 10-0 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home. Those victories were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 9.2 points per game. As for Lakewood, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 9-3 record this season.
Lakewood ended up a good deal behind North Duplin in their previous matchup back in October, losing 43-24. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Phillips, who rushed for 252 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 10.5 yards per carry, and also caught a touchdown. Now that Lakewood 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
