Hoke County is 1-9 against Pinecrest since November of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Hoke County Bucks will host the Pinecrest Patriots at 7:30 p.m.
Hoke County is headed into the match out to prove that what happened against Union Pines on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Hoke County came up short against Union Pines, falling 28-6.
Meanwhile, Pinecrest entered their tilt with Scotland on Friday with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. They came out on top against the Fighting Scots by a score of 43-36.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Pinecrest to victory, but perhaps none more so than Chris Najm, who rushed for 63 yards and three touchdowns. Najm is on a roll when it comes to rushing touchdowns, as he's now punched in two or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Zymire Spencer, who rushed for 138 yards and a touchdown.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Pinecrest was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 268 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 178 rushing yards in eight consecutive contests.
Hoke County's loss dropped their record down to 2-7. As for Pinecrest, their victory bumped their record up to 7-1.
Hoke County was dealt a bruising 35-6 defeat at the hands of Pinecrest in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Spencer, who rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown on only 12 carries, and also picked up 51 receiving yards and a touchdown. Now that Hoke County 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
