The Oakland-Craig Knights and the Cedar Catholic Trojans are set to duel on Friday. Oakland-Craig is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 36.6 points per game this season.
Last Friday, Oakland-Craig was able to grind out a solid win over West Point-Beemer, taking the game 35-22. The Knights pushed the score to 29-6 by the end of the third, a deficit the Cadets cut but never quite recovered from.
Oakland-Craig's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Sylas Nelson led the charge by rushing for 165 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 8.3 yards per carry. Those 165 rushing yards gave Nelson a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Corbin Guill, who picked up 171 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, after a string of seven wins, Cedar Catholic's good fortune finally ran out on Friday. They came up short against Norfolk Catholic, falling 34-10. The Trojans have struggled against the Knights recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive lost matchup.
The losing side was boosted by Braeden Reifenrath, who rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries, and also threw for 193 yards on 19 of 28 attempts.
Oakland-Craig's victory bumped their record up to 6-3. As for Cedar Catholic, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 7-2.
The upcoming contest will be a clash of competing strengths. Oakland-Craig has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 305.4 passing yards per game. Cedar Catholic, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 277.3 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Oakland-Craig came up short against Cedar Catholic in their previous matchup last Friday, falling 28-23. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cedar Catholic's Breiton Whitmire, who rushed for 160 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 7.3 yards per carry. Now that Oakland-Craig 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
