The Joaquin Rams will face off against the Shelbyville Dragons at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Shelbyville is facing Joaquin at the wrong time: Joaquin suffered their first home loss of the season on Friday and they're likely out for redemption. They fell just short of the Bears by a score of 52-49. The defeat continues a trend for the Rams in their matchups with the Bears: they've now lost five in a row.
Even though they lost, Joaquin was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 302 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 165 rushing yards in 17 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Shelbyville had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 11 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Friday. They were the clear victor by a 39-17 margin over the Wolves. Given the Dragons' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 328th, while the Wolves are ranked 739th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Joaquin's loss ended a five-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 5-3. As for Shelbyville, they pushed their record up to 7-1 with the victory, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season.
Joaquin was taken down by Shelbyville 48-14 in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Shelbyville's Dj Barnes, who threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns while completing 91.3% of his passes, and also rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries. Now that Joaquin knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
