The Lakewood Leopards will challenge the North Johnston Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Lakewood gave up the first points last Friday, but they didn't let that get them down. In a tight matchup that could have gone either way, they made off with a 27-26 victory over Red Springs. The 27-point effort marked the Leopards' lowest-scoring match of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask North Johnston). They blew past Hobbton 56-34 on Friday. The contest was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 36-13.
Kaleb Pone was his usual excellent self, throwing for 286 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.4 yards per attempt, and also rushing for 185 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.7 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 110.8 rushing yards per game.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, North Johnston was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 281 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in September of 2023.
Lakewood's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 4-1. As for North Johnston, the victory got them back to even at 2-2.
Everything went Lakewood's way against North Johnston in their previous meeting back in September of 2023 as Lakewood made off with a 28-8 win. Will Lakewood repeat their success, or does North Johnston have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
