Football Preview: Kemper County Wildcats vs. Philadelphia Tornadoes
Kemper County and Philadelphia are an even 5-5 against one another since September of 2014, but not for long. The Kemper County Wildcats are taking a road trip to square off against the Philadelphia Tornadoes at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Kemper County is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 39.3 points per game this season.
Kemper County is probably headed into the match with a chip on their shoulder considering Noxubee County just ended the team's six-game winning streak on Friday. They fell 39-26 to the Tigers. The defensive woes were uncharacteristic for the Wildcats, who until this contest were averaging 11.57 points allowed.
Kemper County might have lost, but man, Damarius Yates was a machine: he rushed for 182 yards and three touchdowns, and also picked up 36 receiving yards. Yates is on a roll when it comes to rushing touchdowns, as he's now punched in two or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season. Kendetryon Backstrom handled things on the ground, rushing for 84 yards.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Kemper County was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 266 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 220 rushing yards in four consecutive games.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Philadelphia). They blew past Sebastopol 68-45 on Friday. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Tornadoes had established a 21 point advantage.
Kemper County's defeat ended a seven-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 6-1. As for Philadelphia, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 2-5.
Kemper County took their win against Philadelphia when the teams last played back in October of 2023 by a conclusive 42-22. The rematch might be a little tougher for Kemper County since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
