Two dominant signal callers in Hezekiah Millender and Antwann Hill Jr are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. After each having a week off, the Clarke Central Gladiators and the Houston County Bears will shake off the cobwebs and face off against one another at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Clarke Central has six straight wins, Houston County has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Last Friday, Clarke Central was fully in charge, breezing past Winder-Barrow 49-8. The Gladiators might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five contests by 27 points or more this season.
Clarke Central had a senior duo take command as Corey Watkins Jr rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 10.5 yards per carry and Millender rushed for 70 yards and two touchdowns on only eight carries. Another player making a difference was Antonio Moore, who rushed for 80 yards and a touchdown.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Clarke Central's defense and their five sacks. Anthony Lonon Jr was particularly dangerous to the passing game, picking up three himself. Those three sacks set a new season-high mark for him.
Clarke Central was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 331 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 224 rushing yards in six consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Houston County lost to Lee County on the road by a 63-48 margin last Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game back in October (31), the Bears still had to take the loss.
Houston County might have lost, but man, Austin Stinson was a machine: he rushed for 215 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries. Those 215 rushing yards gave Stinson a new career-high. Isaiah Mitchell was another key player, gaining 143 total yards and two touchdowns.
Clarke Central's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 8-2. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 40.0 points per game. As for Houston County, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-4.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
