After each having a week off, the Diboll Lumberjacks and the Shepherd Pirates will dust off their jerseys to challenge one another at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Diboll will be looking to keep their four-game home win streak dating back to last season alive.
Last Friday, Diboll ended up a good deal behind Woodville and lost 32-14. While losing is never fun, the Lumberjacks can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 553rd, while the Eagles are ranked 268th).
The losing side was boosted by Michael Mosley, who rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown. He was no stranger to the big play, taking off on a dash that went for 62 yards.
Even if they lost, Diboll's defensive line still kept up the pressure with three sacks. In fact, those sacks all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Decarlos Sanchez. He also set a new season high mark in total tackles with 16.
Meanwhile, Shepherd didn't have quite enough to beat Anderson-Shiro two weeks ago and fell 35-32.
Despite the defeat, Shepherd saw an underclassman step up: Jevaris Marsh rushed for 150 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. The dominant performance gave Marsh a new career-high in rushing yards. Landen Dellinger was another key player, rushing for 39 yards and three touchdowns.
Even though they lost, Shepherd was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 366 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 176 rushing yards in 16 consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Diboll's loss dropped their record down to 1-3. As for Shepherd, their defeat dropped their record down to an identical 1-3.
Diboll strolled past Shepherd in their previous meeting back in October of 2023 by a score of 21-6. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Shepherd's Preston Stephens, who rushed for 165 yards and a touchdown while picking up 7.9 yards per carry. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Diboll still be able to contain Stephens? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
