Football Preview: Cornwall Central Dragons vs. Wallkill Panthers
Cornwall Central has enjoyed a four-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will challenge the Wallkill Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Cornwall Central is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 30.9 points per game this season.
Cornwall Central is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Our Lady of Lourdes: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Cornwall Central blew Our Lady of Lourdes out of the water with a 48-13 final score. The result was nothing new for the Dragons, who have now won three matchups by 26 points or more so far this season.
This one was won in the trenches and the lion's share of the credit has to go to Ilunga Salerno and he. Salerno rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns while he rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Speaking of playmakers, who could forget Braden Murphy, who went all the way with a kickoff return for a touchdown.
One reason for the win was Cornwall Central's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for eight sacks. Dylan Marrero led the group effort, picking up three of those sacks all by himself. Quadir Truluck also set a new season high mark in total tackles with seven.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Cornwall Central was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 282 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 155 rushing yards in five consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Wallkill was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their fifth straight defeat. They lost to Warwick at home by a 34-15 margin. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' New York football rankings (they are ranked 326th, while the Wildcats are ranked 86th).
Cornwall Central pushed their record up to 6-1 with the victory, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Wallkill, their loss dropped their record down to 2-5.
Everything came up roses for Cornwall Central against Wallkill in their previous matchup back in September of 2023, as the squad secured a 40-0 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Cornwall Central since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
