Football Preview: Mandeville Skippers vs. Ponchatoula Green Wave
The Mandeville Skippers are taking a road trip to challenge the Ponchatoula Green Wave at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Mandeville knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 31 points or more in their past seven contests -- so hopefully Ponchatoula likes a good challenge.
Mandeville will head into Friday's game hoping to keep the good times rolling: they only won by two when they last took the field, which might have inspired the 22-point they dealt Hammond on Friday. Everything went Mandeville's way against Hammond as Mandeville made off with a 41-19 win. The result was nothing new for the Skippers, who have now won five matchups by 22 points or more so far this season.
Mandeville's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Nate Sheppard, who rushed for 164 yards on only 15 carries, and Ben Hendricks, who rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown. Sheppard's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his seventh straight game with at least 126 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Mandeville was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 337 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 203 rushing yards in seven consecutive matches.
Mandeville's defense made their presence known, laying out the QB seven times. In that department, Marques Zenon was the leader with two sacks.
Meanwhile, a victory for Ponchatoula just wasn't in the cards on Friday as the squad wasn't able to take the lead at any point. They took a blow against St. Paul's, falling 42-7. While losing is never fun, the Green Wave can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Louisiana football rankings (they are ranked 128th, while the Wolves are ranked 19th).
Mandeville pushed their record up to 7-0 with the win, which was their eighth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Ponchatoula, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-5.
Mandeville suffered a grim 44-21 defeat to Ponchatoula when the teams last played back in October of 2023. Thankfully for Mandeville, Bishop Davis (who rushed for 133 yards and three touchdowns) 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
