Football Preview: East Central HomeSchool Patriots vs. Evangel Christian Lightning
East Central HomeSchool hasn't had much luck against Evangel Christian recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The East Central HomeSchool Patriots will head out to challenge the Evangel Christian Lightning at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Evangel Christian is hoping to do what Lighthouse HomeSchool couldn't on Friday: put an end to East Central HomeSchool's winning streak, which now stands at seven games. Everything went East Central HomeSchool's way against Lighthouse HomeSchool as East Central HomeSchool made off with a 27-6 win. The 27-point effort marked the Patriots' lowest-scoring matchup of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Meanwhile, Evangel Christian faced Southern Christian in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Friday. Evangel Christian claimed a resounding 41-7 victory over Southern Christian on the road. The contest marked the Lightning's most dominant win of the season.
Evangel Christian's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Kemp Swords led the charge by rushing for 97 yards and two touchdowns, while also throwing for 102 yards on seven of 15 attempts. Evangel Christian is undefeated when Swords posts two or more rushing touchdowns, but 1-2 otherwise. Nick Cloud was another key back, rushing for 84 yards and two touchdowns on only ten carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Evangel Christian was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 273 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in November of 2023.
Evangel Christian's defense made their presence known, laying out the QB three times. In that department, Reed Castleberry was the leader with two sacks.
East Central HomeSchool pushed their record up to 7-0 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Evangel Christian, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 7-2 record this season.
East Central HomeSchool was taken down by Evangel Christian 46-7 in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Swords, who threw for 186 yards and five touchdowns while completing 72.2% of his passes, and also rushed for 38 yards and a touchdown. Now that East Central HomeSchool knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
