Football Preview: Wharton Tigers vs. Columbia Roughnecks
Wharton is 1-6 against Columbia since September of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Wharton Tigers will head out to square off against the Columbia Roughnecks at 7:00 p.m. Wharton will be hoping to continue their three-game streak of scoring more points each contest than the last.
Wharton is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Hempstead 55-10 on the road.
Ja'Keon Jackson was his usual excellent self, rushing for 122 yards and three touchdowns on only 11 carries, while also throwing for 179 yards and four touchdowns. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Ja'Carious Wiley also helped with two touchdowns in total.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Wharton was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 250 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Columbia posted their biggest victory since October 6, 2023 last Friday. They were the clear victor by a 46-21 margin over Yoakum.
It was another big night for Mudassir Abdullah, who rushed for 150 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.9 yards per carry, and also picked up 52 receiving yards.incredibly, Abdullah got all that yardage with just one huge grab Another player making a difference was Korbyn Faulkner, who rushed for 105 yards on only five carries.
Columbia wouldn't let Yoakum keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. Columbia can thank Braden Gilliam and Grant Thrasher for forcing all of them. Thrasher also set a new season high mark in rushing yards with 168.
Wharton's win ended a five-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 2-2. As for Columbia, the victory also got them back to even at 2-2.
Wharton took a serious blow against Columbia when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 55-0. Thankfully for Wharton, Trevon Lewis (who rushed for 112 yards and a touchdown on only eight carries) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
