Football Preview: Lee County Yellow Jackets vs. Pinecrest Patriots
After three games on the road, Lee County is heading back home. They will challenge the Pinecrest Patriots at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Lee County is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 29.7 points per game this season.
Last Saturday, Lee County didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Hoke County, but they still walked away with a 24-20 victory.
Lee County had a senior duo take command as Jayden Hill picked up 151 receiving yards and three touchdowns and Rahshaun Brown rushed for 133 yards while picking up 7.4 yards per carry. With that strong performance, Hill is now averaging an impressive 103.7 receiving yards per game.
Lee County wouldn't let Hoke County keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. It was truly a group effort as Kaden Hill, Julian Best, and Cody Graham picked up one apiece. Lee County got some further help from Taj Mckendall: he made 12 total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, after only seven points in their last matchup, Pinecrest made sure to put some points up on the board against Southern Lee on Friday. Pinecrest blew past Southern Lee 42-13 on the road. Given the Patriots' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 69th, while the Cavaliers are ranked 224th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Zymire Spencer continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 127 yards and two touchdowns on only 13 carries. What's more, he's the contest marked his fourth straight with at least 127 dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Chris Najm, who rushed for 84 yards and two touchdowns.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Pinecrest was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 328 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Lee County's win bumped their record up to 4-2. As for Pinecrest, their victory was their eighth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 5-1.
Friday's match will pit two of the most dominant backs against one another: Brown and Spencer. Brown has put up some stellar numbers this year, and currently owns excellent season averages 135.5 rushing yards per game this season. For his part, Spencer has averaged 134.2 rushing yards per game this season.
Lee County came up short against Pinecrest in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, falling 23-13. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Spencer, who rushed for 228 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 11.4 yards per carry. Now that Lee County 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
