It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but King/Drew had no problem doing just that on Friday. They walked away with a 35-23 win over the Kennedy Cougars. 35 seems to be a good number for the Golden Eagles as the squad scooped up a victory with the same number of points in their previous game.
Keenan Jackson continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 184 yards and three touchdowns while completing 85.7% of his passes, and also rushing for 87 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries. He is becoming a predictor of King/Drew's success: when he posts at least three passing touchdowns the team is 7-1 (and 2-3 when he doesn't).
King/Drew was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 245 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 96.2 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five matches they've averaged 238.8.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to King/Drew's defense and their four sacks. Chinedu Onyeagoro was especially locked on to Kennedy's QB and sacked him twice. Onyeagoro is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last eight games he's played. Another thorn in Kennedy's side was Anthony Torrence, who picked up a sack, made eight total tackles, and defended a pass.
Despite the loss, Kennedy had strong showings from Josue Sandoval, who rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries, and Justyn Sears, who rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown. Those 61 rushing yards gave Sears a new career-high.
King/Drew has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 9-4 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 41.9 points per game. As for Kennedy, with the defeat, they broke their nine-game winning streak and moved their record to 10-3.
King/Drew will face off against Palisades at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Palisades knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 31 points or more in their past seven games -- so hopefully King/Drew likes a good challenge. Kennedy does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
