Football Preview: West Orange-Stark Mustangs vs. Shepherd Pirates
The West Orange-Stark Mustangs will face off against the Shepherd Pirates at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Shepherd is hoping to do what Jasper couldn't on Friday: put an end to West Orange-Stark's winning streak, which now stands at four games. West Orange-Stark had just enough and edged Jasper out 39-36. Given the Mustangs' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 118th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 411th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Shepherd won against Diboll two weeks ago with 50 points and they decided to stick to that point total again on Friday. Shepherd strolled past Tarkington with points to spare, taking the game 50-32. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Pirates.
Shepherd's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Landen Dellinger led the charge by rushing for 215 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 12.6 yards per carry, and also throwing for ten yards and a touchdown. With that strong performance, Dellinger is now averaging an impressive 102.3 rushing yards per game. Another rusher making a difference was Preston Stephens, who gained 153 total yards and two touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Shepherd was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 490 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 176 rushing yards in 18 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
West Orange-Stark pushed their record up to 5-1 with the win, which was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Shepherd, the victory got them back to even at 3-3.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
