Football Preview: Midlothian Heritage Jaguars vs. Marshall Mavericks
The Midlothian Heritage Jaguars's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Marshall Mavericks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Midlothian Heritage is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Thursday. They blew past Seagoville 65-0. The contest marked the Jaguars' most dominant win of the season.
Brad Waxler had a dynamite game for Midlothian Heritage, throwing for 192 yards and three touchdowns on only 13 passes, while also rushing for 93 yards and a touchdown on only six carries. The dominant performance gave Waxler a new career-high in rushing yards. Malik Crutcher was another key player, rushing for 79 yards and two touchdowns on only six carries.
Midlothian Heritage was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 280 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 245 rushing yards in five consecutive matches.
Midlothian Heritage wouldn't let Seagoville keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Midlothian Heritage can thank Jayden Moore and Brayden Lafluer for forcing both of them.
Meanwhile, Marshall had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 31.5 points) and they went ahead and made it five on Friday. They blew past the Bears 35-14. That's two games straight that the Mavericks have won by exactly 21 points.
Alton Henderson and Semaj Gatson were among the main playmakers for Marshall as the former rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns on only 15 carries and the latter rushed for 167 yards and a touchdown while picking up 8.4 yards per carry. Gatson's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 128 rushing yards. Marshall also got a significant boost from Isaiah Bush, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 86 yards.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Marshall's defense and their five sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Jayden Cooks and Landon Jones, who racked up all five sacks between them.
Marshall's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-2. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 7.0 points per game. As for Midlothian Heritage, their win bumped their record up to 8-3.
Friday's game might be decided in the on the ground. Midlothian Heritage has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 236.3 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Marshall struggles in that department as they've been averaging 291.8. It's looking like Friday's matchup might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Midlothian Heritage was able to grind out a solid victory over Marshall when the teams last played back in November of 2023, winning 21-14. Will Midlothian Heritage repeat their success, or does Marshall have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
