North Johnston has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will head out to square off against the Lakewood Leopards at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
North Johnston is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They put the hurt on Hobbton with a sharp 56-34 win on Friday. The Panthers pushed the score to 50-27 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wildcats cut but never quite recovered from.
Kaleb Pone was his usual excellent self, throwing for 286 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.4 yards per attempt, and also rushing for 185 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.7 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 110.8 rushing yards per game.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, North Johnston was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 281 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
Meanwhile, Lakewood gave up the first points last Friday, but they didn't let that get them down. In a tight match that could have gone either way, they made off with a 27-26 victory over Red Springs. The 27-point effort marked the Leopards' lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Among those leading the charge was Nakai Owens, who rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown on only five carries.
Lakewood wouldn't let Red Springs keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Lakewood can thank Reed Ammons and Dashaun Carr for forcing both of them.
The win got North Johnston back to even at 2-2. As for Lakewood, their victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 4-1.
Monday's game might be decided in the on the ground. North Johnston has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 205 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Lakewood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 245.8. It's looking like Monday's matchup might have some serious battles in the trenches.
North Johnston might still be hurting after the 28-8 defeat they got from Lakewood when the teams last played back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Lakewood's Calvin Lacewell, who rushed for 150 yards and two touchdowns on only 14 carries. Now that North Johnston knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
