After both having extra time off, the Monroe Area Purple Hurricanes and the Walnut Grove Warriors will dust off their jerseys to take on one another at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Monroe Area's defense heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed back in August. They claimed a resounding 38-0 win over Cedar Shoals at home. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Purple Hurricanes.
Forrest Ross and Jitt Carr were among the main playmakers for Monroe Area as the former rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries and the latter rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns. Carr's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 110 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Another reason for the win was Monroe Area's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for seven sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Dacian Davis and William Carr who racked up six sacks between them. With that strong performance, Davis is now averaging an impressive 2.5 sacks per game.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Monroe Area was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 278 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 192 rushing yards in seven consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Walnut Grove put another one in the bag last Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They put the hurt on Apalachee with a sharp 35-13 victory. The Warriors pushed the score to 35-6 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wildcats cut but never quite recovered from.
Emadd Howard went supernova for Walnut Grove, rushing for 132 yards and three touchdowns.
Walnut Grove wouldn't let Apalachee keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force three fumbles. It was truly a group effort as Kamren Brown, Jaden Brooks, and D'Lante Overstreet picked up one apiece.
Monroe Area pushed their record up to 2-0 with that win, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Walnut Grove, their record is now 3-0.
Everything came up roses for Monroe Area against Walnut Grove in their previous meeting back in August of 2021 as the team secured a 35-0 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Monroe Area 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
