Two dominant signal callers in Phoenix Murphy and Carson Kirby are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Norman Tigers will head out to face off against the Bixby Spartans at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Norman sitting on four straight wins and Bixby on eight.
Norman is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Oklahoma's top teams: Mustang, who was ranked 17th in their home state at the time (Norman was ranked fifth). Norman walked away with a 40-28 victory over Mustang on Friday.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Norman to victory, but perhaps none more so than Murphy, who threw for 261 yards and four touchdowns while completing 71.4% of his passes, and also rushed for 43 yards. Another back making a difference was Kam Donald, who rushed for 111 yards and a touchdown.
Norman was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 229 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 155 rushing yards in eight consecutive games.
Meanwhile, everything came up roses for Bixby against Deer Creek on Friday as the team secured a 48-10 win. Considering the Spartans have won seven matches by more than 27 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Kirby continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 273 yards and four touchdowns. Cooper Parker was another key player, rushing for 87 yards and a touchdown on only eight carries.
Bixby didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off four passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Emory Snyder, Brody Scott, Nathan Hobbs, and Tyler Wright picked up one apiece.
Bixby's victory was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 8-1. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 37.5 points. As for Norman, their win bumped their record up to 8-1.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Norman has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 290.2 passing yards per game. Bixby, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 242.3 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Norman was taken down by Bixby 59-20 in their previous matchup back in November of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Kirby, who threw for 152 yards and four touchdowns on perfect 5-for-5 passing. Now that Norman 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
