Football Preview: East Wake Warriors vs. West Johnston Wildcats
Two dominant signal callers in Maurice Maloy and Josiah Wells are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The East Wake Warriors will be playing in front of their home fans against the West Johnston Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
East Wake is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 48 points last Friday, they were much more limited against C.B. Aycock on Thursday. They came up short against the Golden Falcons, falling 28-7. While losing is never fun, the Warriors can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 201st, while the Golden Falcons are ranked 77th).
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask West Johnston). They simply couldn't be stopped on Thursday as they easily beat Southern Wayne 48-14 at home. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest win the Wildcats have posted since September 21, 2023.
Wells continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 143 yards and three touchdowns on only 12 carries, while also throwing for 115 yards and a touchdown. Another player making a difference was Koby Mayle, who rushed for 105 yards.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: West Johnston was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 285 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in August of 2023.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to West Johnston's defense and their four sacks. Southern Wayne's QB won't forget Jamari Giles anytime soon given he sacked him twice. Giles is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made seven or more in the last six games he's played dating back to last season.
East Wake's defeat was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season, which dropped their record down to 2-3. As for West Johnston, they now have a winning record of 3-2.
East Wake was able to grind out a solid victory over West Johnston when the teams last played back in September of 2023, winning 13-6. Does East Wake have another victory up their sleeve, or will West Johnston turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
