The Randle Lions will face off against the Ellison Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
On Saturday, Randle humbled Lamar Consolidated with a 56-7 victory. The victory continues a trend for the Lions in their matchups with the Mustangs: they've now won three in a row.
One reason for the win was Randle's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for four sacks. Camron Hypolite was especially locked on to Lamar Consolidated's QB and sacked him twice.
Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Ellison's strategy against University on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that the Eagles blew the Trojans out of the water with a 60-23 final score. The Eagles' offense stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most points they've scored all season.
A big part of Ellison's win came down to the chemistry between Marlyn Smith and his top target Kae'Andre Sayles. Smith threw for 340 yards and four TDs while completing 72.4% of his passes while Sayles picked up 181 receiving yards and three scores. Sayles has become a key player for Ellison: the team is 4-1 when he posts at least two receiving touchdowns, but 1-4 otherwise. A healthy portion of Smith's aerial production (92 yards to be exact) also went to Prince Hall, who also brought in a receiving touchdown.
Ellison didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Marc Ealy and Diondre Bell.
The victory got Ellison back to even at 5-5. As for Randle, their record is now 10-0.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Randle has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 278.7 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Ellison has preferred to attack from the air: they average 289.6 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Thursday? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps