Football Preview: Naples Golden Eagles vs. St. Petersburg Green Devils
The Naples Golden Eagles will challenge the St. Petersburg Green Devils at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Naples is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They breezed by River Ridge to the tune of 44-0. Given the Golden Eagles' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 36th, while the Royal Knights are ranked 161st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Shawn Simeon continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 142 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries. His longest rush was for an impressive 59 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. Trayvon Jean was another key back, rushing for 92 yards and a touchdown on only six carries.
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg waltzed into their match on Friday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They blew past the Tigers 35-0.
Jeffery Jones was his usual excellent self, rushing for 302 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 16.8 yards per carry. He is trending in the right direction considering he's improved his point production for four straight games.
Another reason for the win was St. Petersburg's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for six sacks. Floyd Mercer was especially locked on to Dunbar's QB and sacked him twice. St. Petersburg got some further help from Jacob Collins: he picked up a sack and made ten total tackles (3.0 for loss).
St. Petersburg was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 368 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 152 rushing yards in six consecutive matchups.
Naples has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven contests, which provided a nice bump to their 9-2 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 10.1 points per game. As for St. Petersburg, they pushed their record up to 9-2 with the victory, which was their third straight at home.
Friday's game might be decided in the on the ground. Naples has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 344.9 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like St. Petersburg struggles in that department as they've been averaging 241.6. It's looking like Friday's match might have some serious battles in the trenches. 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
