Sacred Heart is on a four-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Lumberton is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Sacred Heart Crusaders will square off against the Lumberton Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are strolling into their games after big wins in their previous games.
Sacred Heart will roll into the matchup after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up seven points last Friday, then bounced right back against Salem on Friday. Sacred Heart blew past Salem, posting a 50-14 victory on the road. The result was nothing new for the Crusaders, who have now won five matches by 20 points or more so far this season.
Kyron Murphy was his usual excellent self, throwing for 179 yards and three touchdowns while completing 85.7% of his passes, and also rushing for 61 yards on only five carries. That's the most rushing yards he has posted since back in November of 2023. Another player making a difference was Gary Duckworth, who picked up 94 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Sacred Heart was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 208 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 183 rushing yards in nine consecutive contests dating back to last season.
One reason for the win was Sacred Heart's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for 6.5 sacks. In that department, Jameson Phillips was the leader with three.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Lumberton). They took their game at home on Friday with ease, bagging a 72-3 win over East Marion. The team's explosion on offense also rewarded the Panthers with their most commanding win of the season.
Sacred Heart's victory bumped their record up to 6-1. As for Lumberton, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Sacred Heart was able to grind out a solid win over Lumberton when the teams last played back in October of 2023, winning 17-7. Does Sacred Heart have another victory up their sleeve, or will Lumberton turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
