North Johnston has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will head out to face off against the Lakewood Leopards at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
North Johnston is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Hobbton 56-34 on Friday. The Panthers pushed the score to 50-27 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wildcats cut but never quite recovered from.
It was another big night for Kaleb Pone, who threw for 286 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.4 yards per attempt, and also rushed for 185 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.7 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 110.8 rushing yards per game.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, North Johnston was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 281 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
Meanwhile, Lakewood was not the first on the board last Friday, but they got there more often. In a tight contest that could have gone either way, they made off with a 27-26 victory over Red Springs. The 27-point effort marked the Leopards' lowest-scoring matchup of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Nakai Owens was the offensive standout of the match as he rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown on only five carries.
Lakewood wouldn't let Red Springs keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Lakewood can thank Reed Ammons and Dashaun Carr for forcing both of them.
The win got North Johnston back to even at 2-2. As for Lakewood, their victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 4-1.
Friday's game might be decided in the on the ground. North Johnston has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 205 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Lakewood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 245.8. It's looking like Friday's contest might have some serious battles in the trenches.
North Johnston suffered a grim 28-8 defeat to Lakewood in their previous matchup back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Lakewood's Calvin Lacewell, who rushed for 150 yards and two touchdowns on only 14 carries. Now that North Johnston 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
