Pleasant Grove is on a five-game streak of home wins, while St. Michael Catholic is on a six-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Pleasant Grove Spartans will host the St. Michael Catholic Cardinals at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Pleasant Grove is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They blew past Straughn, posting a 62-21 victory. The Spartans' offense stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most points they've scored all season.
Pleasant Grove relied on the efforts of Collin Moore, who gained 222 total yards and four touchdowns, and Kaleb Freeman, who threw for 338 yards and five touchdowns on only 18 passes. Moore really caught the secondary sleeping when he pulled down a catch that went for 99 yards. Tremell Washington was Freeman's top target, picking up 119 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, everything went St. Michael Catholic's way against Handley on Friday as St. Michael Catholic made off with a 63-40 win. Given the Cardinals 's advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama football rankings (they are ranked 46th, while the Tigers are ranked 146th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Noah Moss, who rushed for 217 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 9.0 yards per carry, and also picked up 90 receiving yards and a touchdown. His rushing production has been exceptional as that marked his seventh straight game with at least 110 rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Gunner Rivers, who threw for 247 yards and four touchdowns.
St. Michael Catholic didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Brayden Smith and Kamarjay Lavoie.
St. Michael Catholic's victory bumped their record up to 10-1. As for Pleasant Grove, their win bumped their record up to 9-1.
The upcoming match will be a clash of competing strengths. Pleasant Grove has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 198.5 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, St. Michael Catholic has preferred to attack from the air: they average 283 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps