The Northside Panthers will face off against the Yates Lions at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Northside has given up an average of 41 points per game this season, but Thursday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.
Northside's offense might be in the hot seat on Thursday considering what happened against North Forest on Friday. They had to suffer through a 63-0 loss at the hands of the Bulldogs. The Panthers have struggled against the Bulldogs recently, as the game was their third consecutive lost matchup.
Meanwhile, Yates strolled into their game last Saturday with a perfect record and they left with the same. They blew past North Forest 56-6. 56 seems to be a good number for the Lions as the team scooped up a win with the same number of points in their previous game.
Yates' win came from a few key players Northside will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Jordan Simmons, who rushed for 135 yards and two TDs on only nine carries, and also picked up 66 receiving yards and one score. He really tore up the turf during one magnificent 79-yard run. Chris Brown was another key player, rushing for 107 yards and one touchdown on only eight carries.
Wins are hard to come by when you can't run the rock, something Yates proved: they limited North Forest to a paltry 1.9 yards per carry. The team can thank Derrick Wolford for the heroic effort on defense: he. Yates didn't have any issues in that department, having averaged 12.7.
Yates didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. Autril Watkins picked up that interception and then proceeded to rub salt in the wound by taking it back the other way for a touchdown. Another thorn in North Forest's side was Wolford, who picked up 0.5 sacks and made nine total tackles (2.0 for loss).
Northside's defeat dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Yates, their victory bumped their record up to 7-0.
Northside was taken down by Yates 68-0 in their previous meeting back in October of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Brown, who threw for 325 yards and six TDs on only 17 passes, and also rushed for 108 yards and a pair of scores on only five carries. Now that the Panthers know 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
