Football Preview: Central Dauphin East Panthers vs. Harrisburg Cougars
A feisty cat fight will be fought when Panthers faces off against the Harrisburg Cougars at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Central Dauphin East is headed into Saturday's matchup hungry for a win as their strong season has now been derailed by two straight losses. They lost 41-21 to Bishop McDevitt on Friday. The Panthers were down 34-14 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.
Meanwhile, everything went Harrisburg's way against Central Dauphin on Saturday as Harrisburg made off with a 27-7 win. The result was nothing new for the Cougars, who have now won four matches by 20 points or more so far this season.
Harrisburg got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Messiah Mickens out in front who rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries. An impressive showing, but Mickens really ramped things up playing D: he picked up three sacks and made three total tackles. The team also got some help courtesy of Nehemiah Ewell, who rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown.
Another reason for the win was Harrisburg's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for five sacks. Mickens was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up threehimself. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 102 rushing yards dating back to last season. Rick Brown was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making 14 total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Harrisburg was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 216 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 208 rushing yards in four consecutive contests.
Central Dauphin East's defeat ended a five-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 7-2. As for Harrisburg, they pushed their record up to 7-2 with the win, which was their ninth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Central Dauphin East came up short against Harrisburg when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 34-27. Can Central Dauphin East avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
