Football Preview: Eastern Wayne Warriors vs. Princeton Bulldogs
Eastern Wayne is on a five-game streak of home wins, while Princeton is on a four-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Eastern Wayne Warriors will host the Princeton Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Eastern Wayne is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They breezed by Northwood to the tune of 44-14.
Izeiah Oates was his usual excellent self, throwing for 241 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 12.1 yards per attempt, and also rushing for 101 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Charlie Thomas was Oates' top target, picking up 81 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Eastern Wayne was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 301 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Eastern Wayne didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Bobby Tann, Jeremiah Faison, and Rahkeem Faison picked up one apiece.
Meanwhile, Princeton was fully in charge on Friday, breezing past East Carteret 55-18.
Princeton's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Kadyn Haire, who rushed for 187 yards and four touchdowns on only 14 carries. Haire is becoming a predictor of Princeton's success: when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns the team is undefeated (and 3-4 when he doesn't). The team also got some help courtesy of Teo Mcphatter, who rushed for 175 yards and two touchdowns on only 15 carries.
Princeton has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 7-4 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 29.2 points. As for Eastern Wayne, their victory bumped their record up to 9-2.
Friday's match might be decided in the on the ground. Eastern Wayne has been excellent on the ground this season, having averaged 181.1 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Princeton struggles in that department as they've been averaging 329.2. It's looking like Friday's game might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Eastern Wayne was able to grind out a solid win over Princeton when the teams last played back in October, winning 30-18. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Princeton's Austin Lewallen, who rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.6 yards per carry. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Eastern Wayne still be able to contain Lewallen? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
