Two dominant backs in Bralen Smith and Kelton Barney are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Grand Prairie Gophers will head out on the road to challenge the Lamar Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Grand Prairie is no doubt hoping to put an end to a three-game streak of away losses.
Grand Prairie is headed into the contest out to prove that what happened against Arlington on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Grand Prairie was outmatched by Arlington at home and fell 52-24. While losing is never fun, the Gophers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 657th, while the Colts are ranked 206th).
Despite the loss, Grand Prairie got top-tier performance from Smith, who rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries. Smith's rushing production has been exceptional as that marked his sixth straight game with at least 112 rushing yards.
Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 49-21, which was the final score in Lamar's tilt against Bowie on Friday. The defeat continues a trend for the Vikings in their matchups with the Volunteers: they've now lost three in a row.
Despite the loss, Lamar got top-tier performance from Barney, who rushed for 84 yards and two touchdowns.
Lamar's defeat dropped their record down to 3-6. As for Grand Prairie, their loss dropped their record down to 1-8.
Grand Prairie couldn't quite finish off Lamar in their previous matchup back in October of 2023 and fell 31-29. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Lamar's Gannon Carey, who threw for 247 yards and a touchdown while completing 76.7% of his passes, and also rushed for 92 yards on only 13 carries. Now that Grand Prairie knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
