The Emerson Mavericks will head out on the road to face off against the Independence Knights at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Emerson knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past nine matchups -- so hopefully Independence likes a good challenge.
Emerson pushed their score all the way to 35 two weeks ago, but even that wasn't enough to win. They and Lake Dallas were almost perfectly matched up, but Emerson suffered an agonizing 36-35 loss. Despite running the score up even higher than they did back in October (34), Emerson still had to take the loss.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Michael Hawkins, who threw for 165 yards and three touchdowns on only 12 passes. Kameron Lockhart also deserves a shout-out for his two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Independence's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Friday after their third straight loss. They were beaten by Lake Dallas 70-10. While losing is never fun, Independence can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 837th, while Lake Dallas is ranked 156th).
The losses dropped Emerson to 7-2 and Independence to 1-8.
Emerson strolled past Independence in their previous meeting back in November of 2022 by a score of 42-28. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Independence's Ude Enyeribe, who rushed for 197 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.3 yards per carry. Now that he won't be playing on Thursday, will it be that much easier for Emerson to walk away with another win? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
