Football Preview: East Central Hornets vs. St. Martin Yellow Jackets
The East Central Hornets will face off against the St. Martin Yellow Jackets at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. East Central will be strutting in after a victory while St. Martin will be coming in after a defeat.
Having struggled with three losses in a row, East Central finally turned things around against North Pike on Friday. They strolled past the Jaguars with points to spare, taking the game 20-6. The Hornets' offense stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most points they've scored all season.
Cale Hollinghead had a dynamite game for East Central, rushing for 134 yards and three touchdowns. The dominant performance gave Hollinghead a new career-high in rushing yards.
Another reason for the win was East Central's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for eight sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Jeffery Jackson and Lucas Smith, who racked up four sacks between them. With that strong performance, Jackson is now averaging an impressive 6 total tackles per game. East Central got some further help from Matthew Combs: he forced a fumble, made 12 total tackles (1.0 for loss), and made 12 total tackles (1.0 for loss).
East Central was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 213 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 154 rushing yards in six consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, St. Martin entered their contest against Stone on Friday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. St. Martin took a 28-15 hit to the loss column at the hands of Stone. Despite 80 more yards than the Tomcats, the Yellow Jackets couldn't convert that extra yardage to scores.
Despite the defeat, St. Martin saw an underclassman step up: Kevin Marshall rushed for 153 yards and a touchdown, and also threw for 137 yards and a touchdown. Those 153 rushing yards set a new season-high mark for Marshall.
East Central's first win this season bumped their record up to 1-3. As for St. Martin, their loss dropped their record down to 2-2.
East Central took their victory against St. Martin when the teams last played back in September of 2023 by a conclusive 63-42. Will East Central repeat their success, or does St. Martin have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
