Football Preview: Houston County Bears vs. Clarke Central Gladiators
Two dominant signal callers in Antwann Hill Jr and Hezekiah Millender are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. After each having a week off, the Houston County Bears and the Clarke Central Gladiators will dust off their jerseys to challenge one another at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Houston County has struggled recently with three defeats in a row, while Clarke Central will arrive with six straight victories.
Last Friday, Houston County ended up a good deal behind Lee County and lost 63-48. While losing is never fun, the Bears can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Georgia football rankings (they are ranked 28th, while the Trojans are ranked third).
Despite the loss, Houston County saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Austin Stinson rushed for 215 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries. Stinson's longest rush was for an impressive 69 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. Isaiah Mitchell also helped with two touchdowns in total.
Stinson was just one part of a punishing run game: Houston County was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 207 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in November of 2023.
Even if they lost, Houston County's defensive line still kept up the pressure with four sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Westen Ard and Zion Paul, who racked up all four sacks between them. Ard is also crushing it when it comes to total tackles: he's made at least six every time he's taken the field this season. Houston County got some further help from Jordan Smith: he forced a fumble and made 12 total tackles.
Meanwhile, Clarke Central humbled Winder-Barrow with a 49-8 victory. The contest was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 28-0.
Clarke Central can attribute much of their success to Corey Watkins Jr, who rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 10.5 yards per carry, and Millender, who rushed for 70 yards and two touchdowns on only eight carries. Antonio Moore was another key rusher, rushing for 80 yards and a touchdown.
Clarke Central's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 8-2. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 40.0 points per game. As for Houston County, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-4.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
