Football Preview: Sandy Creek Patriots vs. LaGrange Grangers
Sandy Creek has gone 5-0 against LaGrange recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Sandy Creek Patriots will take on the LaGrange Grangers at 7:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Sandy Creek is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They blew past Adairsville 48-23. Given the Patriots' advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia football rankings (they are ranked 49th, while the Tigers are ranked 209th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Sandy Creek relied on the efforts of Caleb Hill, who threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns while completing 83.3% of his passes, and Amari Latimer, who gained 171 total yards and two touchdowns. 98 of Hill's passing yards were hauled in by Zalen Green, who also brought in a receiving touchdown.
Sandy Creek didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Rod Smith Jr and Evan Harvey.
Meanwhile, a well-balanced attack led LaGrange over Lumpkin County in every quarter on their way to victory on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that LaGrange blew Lumpkin County out of the water with a 48-6 final score. The game was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Grangers had established a 36 point advantage.
Malachi Render-Fannin continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 201 yards while picking up 11.8 yards per carry. His rushing production has been exceptional as that marked his seventh straight game with at least 109 rushing yards.
LaGrange was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 201 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 162 rushing yards in four consecutive contests.
LaGrange has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 8-3 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 40.0 points per game. As for Sandy Creek, they pushed their record up to 10-1 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home.
Friday's match will pit two of the most dominant backs against one another: Latimer and Render-Fannin. Latimer just won't slow down this season and has caught 4 touchdowns while averaging 38.9 receiving yards per game. Render-Fannin has been a dominant force too and has averaged 150 rushing yards per game.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's game: Sandy Creek has been on an offensive roll this season, having averaged 386.6 total yards per game. It's a different story for LaGrange, though, as they've been averaging only 144.9. Will Sandy Creek be able to march up the field at their leisure again, or will LaGrange flip the script? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
