The Mercy Culture Prep Royals will challenge the First Baptist Saints at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Mercy Culture Prep has struggled recently with eight losses in a row, while First Baptist will arrive with 17 straight victories.
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 can't lose the matchup if you win every quarter, and that was precisely First Baptist's strategy against Covenant Christian on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that First Baptist blew Covenant Christian out of the water with a 56-14 final score. The result was nothing new for the Saints, who have now won three matches by 35 points or more so far this season.
Bradlee Mays was his usual excellent self, picking up 155 receiving yards and four touchdowns. The team also got some help courtesy of Quincy Rheams, who rushed 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. Kore Thomas was another major factor on D, picking up 4.5 sacks, making seven total tackles (6.0 for loss), and making 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 games dating back to last season.
Mercy Culture Prep's defeat dropped their record down to 0-4. As for First Baptist, they pushed their record up to 4-0 with the win, which was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season.
The upcoming contest 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 matchup 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
