The Woodville Panthers will challenge the Appalachian Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Woodville's offense might be in the hot seat on Friday considering what happened against Valley Head on Friday. They had to suffer through a 53-0 loss at the hands of the Tigers. The Panthers have struggled against the Tigers recently, as their game on Friday was their sixth consecutive lost matchup.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Appalachian, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Friday. They were the clear victor by a 35-14 margin over Ragland on Friday. The Eagles might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three contests by 21 points or more this season.
It was another big night for Braden Gilliland, who rushed for 366 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 13.1 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 2.1 rushing touchdowns per game.
Appalachian didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of JT Hyde and Sean Curtis. Hyde also set a new season high mark in total tackles with 11.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Appalachian was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 433 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 154 rushing yards in nine consecutive games dating back to last season.
Woodville's loss dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Appalachian, their victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 6-2.
Woodville came up short against Appalachian in their previous meeting back in September of 2023, falling 35-22. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Gilliland, who rushed for 211 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 10.6 yards per carry. Now that Woodville 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
