It'll be a Battle of the Bugs Yellowjackets faces off against the Cottondale Hornets at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The timing isn't great for Vernon: they have been struggling with four straight losses at home, while Cottondale has snatched up three consecutive wins on the road.
Having struggled with four losses in a row, Vernon finally turned things around against Central on Friday. They came out on top against the Jaguars by a score of 16-9.
Vernon can attribute much of their success to Caden Hammack, who rushed for 77 yards and a touchdown, and Tristan Pugh, who picked up 49 receiving yards. That's the most rushing yards Hammack has posted since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Cottondale won against Franklin County on October 4th with 56 points and they decided to stick to that point total again last Friday. Cottondale had just enough and edged Liberty County out 56-53.
Jocarian Garrett continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 338 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 11.3 yards per carry. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his 18th straight game with at least 100 rushing yards dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Tramond Collins, who gained 108 total yards and three touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Cottondale was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 410 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 267 rushing yards in 18 consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Cottondale didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Treyshon Nettles and Alex Bellamy.
Vernon's win bumped their record up to 2-6. As for Cottondale, their victory bumped their record up to 7-0.
Vernon was dealt a bruising 56-14 defeat at the hands of Cottondale when the teams last played back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cottondale's Cameron Odom, who rushed for 259 yards and five touchdowns on only 14 carries, and also threw for 40 yards and a touchdown. Now that Vernon 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
