Football Preview: Ponchatoula Green Wave vs. Mandeville Skippers
The Ponchatoula Green Wave will challenge the Mandeville Skippers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Ponchatoula will head into Friday's contest out to bounce back: they won a close one the last time they played, but unfortunately they suffered a serious change of fortune on Friday. They were outmatched by St. Paul's on the road and fell 42-7. The Green Wave were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 35-0.
Meanwhile, Mandeville put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They put the hurt on Hammond with a sharp 41-19 victory. The Skippers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five games by 22 points or more this season.
Mandeville relied on the efforts of Nate Sheppard, who rushed for 164 yards on only 15 carries, and Ben Hendricks, who rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown. Sheppard's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his seventh straight game with at least 126 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Mandeville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 337 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 203 rushing yards in seven consecutive matchups.
One reason for the win was Mandeville's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for seven sacks. Marques Zenon was especially locked on to Hammond's QB and sacked him twice.
Ponchatoula dropped their record down to 2-5 with the loss, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Mandeville, their win bumped their record up to 7-0.
Everything went Ponchatoula's way against Mandeville when the teams last played back in October of 2023, as Ponchatoula made off with a 44-21 victory. Will Ponchatoula repeat their success, or does Mandeville have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
