The Shepherd Pirates will take on the West Orange-Stark Mustangs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Shepherd knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 31 points or more in their past five matches -- so hopefully West Orange-Stark likes a good challenge.
If Shepherd beats West Orange-Stark with 50 points on Friday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two matchups with that exact score. Shepherd took down Tarkington 50-32 on Friday.
Shepherd's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Landen Dellinger led the charge by rushing for 215 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 12.6 yards per carry, and also throwing for ten yards and a touchdown. With that strong performance, Dellinger is now averaging an impressive 102.3 rushing yards per game. Another rusher making a difference was Preston Stephens, who gained 153 total yards and two touchdowns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Shepherd was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 490 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 176 rushing yards in 18 consecutive games dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, West Orange-Stark had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 11.7 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Friday. They skirted past the Bulldogs 39-36. Given the Mustangs' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 118th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 411th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
The victory got Shepherd back to even at 3-3. As for West Orange-Stark, they pushed their record up to 5-1 with the win, which was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
