Football Preview: Garland Owls vs. Wylie East Raiders
The Garland Owls will take on the Wylie East Raiders at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The timing isn't great for Garland: they have been struggling with four straight losses at home, while Wylie East has snatched up eight consecutive wins on the road dating back to last season.
Garland is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They pulled ahead with a 33-32 photo finish over Lakeview Centennial on Thursday. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Owls considering their seven-point performance the game before.
Meanwhile, Wylie East won against Naaman Forest last Friday with 49 points and they decided to stick to that point total again on Friday. Wylie East breezed by Rowlett to the tune of 49-0. The Raiders might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won six matchups by 24 points or more this season.
Howard Fisher IV was his usual excellent self, throwing for 311 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 12.0 yards per attempt, and also rushing for 40 yards and a touchdown. King Baribe was another key player, picking up 111 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Another reason for the win was Wylie East's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for 5.5 sacks. Nash Chapman was especially locked on to Rowlett's QB and sacked him four times. Rome Jeffers was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making seven total tackles (4.0 for loss).
The victory got Garland back to even at 4-4. As for Wylie East, their win bumped their record up to 7-1.
Garland came up short against Wylie East when the teams last played back in September of 2023, falling 28-17. Can Garland avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
