Football Preview: West Stokes Wildcats vs. McMichael Phoenix
West Stokes and McMichael are an even 3-3 against one another since September of 2014, but not for long. The West Stokes Wildcats will host the McMichael Phoenix at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. West Stokes will be looking to keep their six-game home win streak dating back to last season alive.
West Stokes is probably headed into the game with a chip on their shoulder considering Reidsville just ended the team's five-game winning streak on Friday. The contest between them and the Rams wasn't particularly close, with West Stokes falling 57-41. The Wildcats have struggled against the Rams recently, as their game on Friday was their sixth consecutive lost matchup.
Despite the defeat, West Stokes got top-tier performance from Aydden Cherry, who rushed for 206 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 9.8 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave Cherry a new career-high in rushing yards. The team also got some help courtesy of Lindann Fleming, who rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: West Stokes was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 313 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 170 rushing yards in four consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, McMichael was not able to break out of their rough patch last Friday as the team picked up their fourth straight loss. They were dealt a 66-0 defeat at the hands of Reidsville. While losing is never fun, the Phoenix can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 352nd, while the Rams are ranked 31st).
West Stokes' loss dropped their record down to 6-2. As for McMichael, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-6.
West Stokes came up short against McMichael in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, falling 31-24. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of McMichael's Joshua Yokeley, who rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns. Now that West Stokes knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
