The Starkville Yellowjackets will venture away from home to square off against the Horn Lake Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Starkville has struggled recently with three losses in a row, while Horn Lake will arrive with four straight wins.
Starkville is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Mississippi's top teams: Tupelo, who was ranked second in their home state at the time (Starkville was ranked tenth). Starkville took a hard 29-14 fall against Tupelo on Thursday. That makes it the first time this season the Yellowjackets have let down their home crowd.
Meanwhile, Horn Lake earned a 35-27 victory over Southaven on Thursday.
It was another big night for Demarkus Crain, who rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his third straight game with at least 149 rushing yards. Horn Lake also got help from Lance Mcgowen, who showed off his sure hands for 91 receiving yards.
Horn Lake's defense stepped up as well, laying out the QB four times. Southaven's QB won't forget Jayden Collier anytime soon given he sacked him twice. Sabin Williams was another major factor on D, picking up a sack, forcing a fumble, and making eight total tackles (2.0 for loss) in addition to snagging an interception.
Horn Lake's win was their sixth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-2. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 14.5 points per game. As for Starkville, their defeat ended an eight-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 6-4.
Everything came up roses for Starkville against Horn Lake in their previous matchup back in November of 2019, as the team secured a 35-2 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Starkville since the squad 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
