The Mercy Culture Prep Royals will square off against the First Baptist Saints at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Mercy Culture Prep, yet to win a game, are hoping to taste some of the success that has characterized First Baptist's (thus far) undefeated season.
Mercy Culture Prep is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They lost to Coram Deo Academy on the road by a 38-20 margin on Friday.
Mercy Culture Prep might have lost, but man, Jon Anthony Lardizabal was a machine: he rushed for 128 yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for First Baptist on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that they blew Covenant Christian out of the water with a 56-14 final score. The Saints might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three games by 35 points or more this season.
Bradlee Mays continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, picking up 155 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Quincy Rheams was another key player, rushing for 45 yards and a touchdown.
First Baptist wouldn't let Covenant Christian keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. First Baptist can thank Camp Pugh and George Anagnostis for forcing both of them. Another thorn in Covenant Christian's side was Kore Thomas, who picked up 4.5 sacks, made seven total tackles (6.0 for loss), and made seven total tackles (6.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, First Baptist was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 236 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 161 rushing yards in seven consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Mercy Culture Prep's loss dropped their record down to 0-4. As for First Baptist, their win was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-0.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Mercy Culture Prep has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 196 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, First Baptist has preferred to attack from the air: they average 354.2 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Mercy Culture Prep took a serious blow against First Baptist in their previous meeting back in September of 2023, falling 68-26. Thankfully for Mercy Culture Prep, Hunter Mccoy (who threw for 262 yards and seven touchdowns while picking up 11.9 yards per attempt, and also rushed for 96 yards and a touchdown on only five carries) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
