With a playoff game on the line, Joaquin rose to the challenge on Friday. Everything went their way against the Shelbyville Dragons as they made off with a 54-30 win. Considering the Rams have won six contests by more than 20 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Joaquin's defense and their four sacks. Dallon Jordan was especially locked on to Shelbyville's QB and sacked him twice. Jordan also punched in two rushing touchdowns, which is notable because Joaquin is 7-1 when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns, but 2-3 otherwise.
Joaquin was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 389 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 226 rushing yards in three consecutive matches.
Despite the loss, Shelbyville still got an impressive performance from Dj Barnes, who rushed for 137 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 7.6 yards per carry, and also threw for 253 yards and two touchdowns. Barnes has been hot recently, having posted two or more rushing touchdowns the last three times he's played. A healthy portion of Barnes' aerial production (81 yards to be exact) went to Tanor Doggett, who also brought in a receiving touchdown.
Joaquin has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 9-4 record this season. As for Shelbyville, their defeat ended an eight-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 10-3.
Joaquin will square off against Honey Grove at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Honey Grove will roll in looking for their tenth straight victory, something Joaquin surely won't give up without a fight. Shelbyville does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
