The Pine Forest Trojans will challenge the Triton Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Pine Forest took a loss when they played away from home two weeks ago, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They put the hurt on E.E. Smith with a sharp 52-32 win. Given the Trojans' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 139th, while the Golden Bulls are ranked 311th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Jaidon Moore looked great while leading his team to the win, throwing for 181 yards and three touchdowns on only 15 passes, while also rushing for 75 yards and a touchdown on only seven carries. Those 75 rushing yards gave him a new career-high.
Pine Forest wouldn't let E.E. Smith keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Pine Forest can thank Nasseem Powell and Ryan Williams for forcing both of them. Powell also forced afumble, which is notable because Pine Forest is undefeated when he posts at least one forced fumble, but 1-3 otherwise. Kamari Lofton was another major factor on D, picking up two sacks and making seven total tackles.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Pine Forest was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 321 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 193 rushing yards in five consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Triton). They took down Western Harnett 34-15 on Friday. The Hawks pushed the score to 28-8 by the end of the third, a deficit the Eagles cut but never quite recovered from.
The critical scores for Triton came from Ray Plummer, O'Brian Ward, Chris Hicks, Michael Mcneill, and Brayden Bates.
Pine Forest is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five games, which provided a massive bump to their 4-3 record this season. As for Triton, their victory bumped their record up to 2-5.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's match: Pine Forest has been on an offensive roll this season, having averaged 369.7 total yards per game. It's a different story for Triton, though, as they've been averaging only 139.7. Will Pine Forest be able to march up the field at their leisure again, or will Triton flip the script?
Pine Forest ended up a good deal behind Triton in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, losing 34-20. Will Pine Forest have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
