Cleveland has gone 9-1 against Corinth Holders recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. After each having a week off, the two teams will shake off the cobwebs and take on one another at 7:00 p.m. Both teams are still undefeated after three-games, but that won't be the case come Friday.
Cleveland's defense heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed last Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat West Johnston 47-0 at home. Given the Rams' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked eighth, while the Wildcats are ranked 219th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Jackson Byrd had an outrageously good game as he threw for 249 yards and four touchdowns while completing 84.2% of his passes. Deangelo Ruffin Jr was in the mix too, providing Cleveland with two touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Cleveland's defense and their five sacks. Darrell Herriott was especially locked on to West Johnston's QB and sacked him twice. Cleveland got some further help from Aiden Stephenson: he picked up a sack and made seven total tackles (4.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, everything went Corinth Holders' way against South Johnston last Friday as Corinth Holders made off with a 41-17 win. Fans of the Pirates have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season has ended in a blowout of 20+ point.
Jaylon Holder went supernova for Corinth Holders, rushing for 147 yards and three touchdowns on only 15 carries. That's the most rushing yards Holder has posted since back in September of 2023. Another player making a difference was David Jarman, who threw for 237 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 11.3 yards per attempt.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Corinth Holders was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 226 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 218 rushing yards in three consecutive contests.
Corinth Holders' defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged two passes before it was all said and done. The picks came courtesy of Chase Desiata and Israel Daniel.
Cleveland's victory bumped their record up to 3-0. As for Corinth Holders, their win ended a three-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 3-0.
The upcoming match will be a clash of competing strengths. Cleveland has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 275 passing yards per game. Corinth Holders, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 233.3 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Everything came up roses for Cleveland against Corinth Holders when the teams last played back in September of 2023 as the squad secured a 51-0 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Cleveland 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
