Cocoa has won four straight games at home, while Newberry has won four straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Friday. A feisty cat fight will be fought when the Cocoa Tigers face off against the Newberry Panthers at 6:00 p.m. Cocoa knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 31 points or more in their past five contests -- so hopefully Newberry likes a good challenge.
Cocoa is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. Everything went their way against Berkeley Prep as Cocoa made off with a 37-12 win. Considering the Tigers have won eight matches by more than 24 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Latrison Lane went supernova for Cocoa, rushing for 142 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 7.5 yards per carry, and also picking up 43 receiving yards. The dominant performance gave Lane a new career-high in rushing yards. Brady Hart was another key player, throwing for 222 yards and a touchdown.
Cocoa was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 215 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 70.3 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five matchups they've averaged 157.8.
Cocoa didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Cj Hester. Another thorn in Berkeley Prep's side was Javion Hilson, who picked up two sacks, forced a fumble, and made four total tackles.
Meanwhile, Newberry's offense rose to the challenge against a Tornadoes defense that boasted an average of only 9.36 points allowed on Friday. Newberry took down Bradford 34-19.
Cocoa has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 8-3 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 14.0 points per game. As for Newberry, their victory bumped their record up to 10-2.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
