After each having a week off, the Shepherd Pirates and the Diboll Lumberjacks will shake off the cobwebs and face off against one another at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Shepherd knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 31 points or more in their past three matches -- so hopefully Diboll likes a good challenge.
Shepherd will head into Friday's game out to bounce back: they came back down to earth two weeks ago after soaring to a 30-point contest in their last game. They fell just short of Anderson-Shiro by a score of 35-32.
Despite the loss, Shepherd saw an underclassman step up: Jevaris Marsh rushed for 150 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. The dominant performance gave Marsh a new career-high in rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Landen Dellinger, who rushed for 39 yards and three touchdowns.
Even though they lost, Shepherd was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 366 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 176 rushing yards in 16 consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Diboll ended up a good deal behind Woodville last Friday and lost 32-14. While losing is never fun, the Lumberjacks can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 553rd, while the Eagles are ranked 268th).
Michael Mosley put forth a good effort for the losing side as he rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown. He showed off some serious burst, turning on the afterburners on one carry for 62 yards.
Even if they lost, Diboll's defensive line still kept up the pressure with three sacks. In fact, those sacks all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Decarlos Sanchez. He also set a new season high mark in total tackles with 16.
Shepherd's defeat dropped their record down to 1-3. As for Diboll, their loss was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 1-3.
Things could have been worse for Shepherd, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 21-6 loss to Diboll in their previous meeting back in October of 2023. Can Shepherd avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
