Two dominant signal callers in CJ Couch and Finley Polk are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Catawba Ridge Copperheads will be playing at home against the Northwestern Trojans at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Catawba Ridge comes in on four and Northwestern on five.
Catawba Ridge's defense heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Friday. They blew past Fort Mill 30-0 on the road. The Copperheads might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three contests by 24 points or more this season.
Couch continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 381 yards and two touchdowns. 104 of those passing yards were hauled in by Braylen Burgis.
Catawba Ridge's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged three passes before it was all said and done. It was truly a group effort as Josh Dobson, Ian Babcock, and Babcock picked up one apiece.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Northwestern). They claimed a resounding 67-13 win over Nation Ford at home. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 57-13.
It was another big night for Polk, who threw for 335 yards and three touchdowns while completing 90% of his passes, and also rushed for 54 yards and a touchdown on only six carries. That's the most rushing yards he has posted since back in September of 2023. Zymier Gordon-Miles was another key player, rushing for 23 yards and two touchdowns.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Northwestern was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 229 rushing yards. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved they're rushing yard total in three consecutive matches.
Catawba Ridge pushed their record up to 4-1 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. As for Northwestern, their win bumped their record up to 5-0.
Keep an eye on the quarterbacks in this one, as both don't mess around when it comes to the passing game. Catawba Ridge has been excellent in the air this season, having averaged 318.6 passing yards per game. However, it's not like Northwestern struggles in that department as they've been averaging 283.8. It's looking like Friday's matchup might be a classic QB duel.
Catawba Ridge took a serious blow against Northwestern when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 52-10. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Polk, who threw for 303 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 12.6 yards per attempt. Now that Catawba Ridge 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
