Football Preview: Buford Yellow Jackets vs. Cheraw Braves
The Buford Yellow Jackets will venture away from home to challenge the Cheraw Braves at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Buford is no doubt hoping to put an end to a nine-game streak of away losses dating back to last season.
Buford is headed into the match out to prove that what happened against Chesterfield on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Buford was dealt a 67-3 defeat at the hands of Chesterfield.
Meanwhile, Cheraw had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 9 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They claimed a resounding 28-0 victory over the Knights on the road. The Braves' offense checked out after the first half but had enough points banked to take the game anyway.
Cam McClendon continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 123 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.2 yards per carry. He is becoming a predictor of Cheraw's success: when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns the team is 4-1 (and 1-2 when he doesn't). Another player making a difference was Nick Gordon, who picked up 63 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Cheraw didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Gordon and Robert Brown. Brown is also on a roll when it comes to interceptions, as he's now snagged at least one in the last three games he's played dating back to last season.
Buford's loss dropped their record down to 2-6. As for Cheraw, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season.
Things could have been worse for Buford, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 25-7 loss to Cheraw in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of McClendon, who rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. Now that Buford knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps