The Woodland Wolfpack have the luxury of staying home for another week and will welcome the Ola Mustangs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Woodland will be hoping to continue their three-game streak of scoring more points each contest than the last.
Woodland is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They were just a hair shy of victory on Friday and fell 41-40 to Locust Grove. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Friday (31), the Wolfpack still had to take the loss.
Woodland's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Mark Howard, who rushed for 247 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 9.9 yards per carry, and Brayden Rogers, who rushed for 107 yards and a touchdown on only 12 carries. Howard's longest rush was for an incredible 85 yards.
Even though they lost, Woodland was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 420 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Ola's undefeated season came to an end after five games on Friday. They fell to Stockbridge 14-10. That makes it the first time this season the Mustangs have let down their home crowd.
Despite the defeat, Ola saw an underclassman step up: Nigel Newkirk rushed for 198 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.0 yards per carry, and also picked up 34 receiving yards. Newkirk's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his seventh straight game with at least 106 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Woodland's loss was their tenth straight at home dating back to last season, which dropped their record down to 1-6. As for Ola, their defeat was their first of the season and makes their record 5-1.
Friday's match might be decided in the on the ground. Woodland has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 257.5 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Ola struggles in that department as they've been averaging 230.5. It's looking like Friday's game might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Woodland came up short against Ola in their previous meeting back in September of 2021, falling 29-16. Thankfully for Woodland, Micah Bell (who rushed for 142 yards and two touchdowns on only nine carries) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
