The Croatan Cougars will venture away from home to challenge the East Duplin Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Croatan is coming into the match hot, having won their last three games.
Croatan's defense heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Friday. They claimed a resounding 33-0 victory over East Carteret at home. The score at the end of the third wound up being the final score as the Cougars just coasted through the last quarter.
Croatan can attribute much of their success to Coleman Davis, who threw for 115 yards and two touchdowns, and also rushed for 68 yards. Andrew Boucher handled things on the ground, rushing for 82 yards.
Croatan wouldn't let East Carteret keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Croatan can thank Hayden Link and Carter Abalos for forcing both of them. Abalos didn't just play on offense: he also picked up two sacks, forced a fumble, and made seven total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Meanwhile, Friday just wasn't the day for East Duplin's offense. They lost to Richlands at home by a 19-0 margin on Friday. The Panthers have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Croatan's win bumped their record up to 3-0. As for East Duplin, their loss ended a six-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 1-2.
Croatan was dealt a bruising 56-13 defeat at the hands of East Duplin when the teams last played back in September of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of East Duplin's Shawn Davis, who rushed for 196 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries. Now that Croatan knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
