The Franklin Cougars will challenge the Midland Legacy Rebels at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: both posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Franklin took a loss when they played away from home back in October, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Thursday. They took down Pebble Hills 49-35.
Ernie Powers was his usual excellent self, rushing for 408 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.0 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 2.1 rushing touchdowns per game. Another player making a difference was Noah Friesen, who rushed for 51 yards and a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Franklin's defensive line and their five sacks. Dylan Contreras was especially locked on to Pebble Hills' QB and sacked him three times. Contreras also forced afumble, which is notable because Franklin is undefeated when he posts at least one forced fumble, but 3-4 otherwise.
Franklin was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 489 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Midland Legacy). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Odessa 75-22. Winning may never get old, but the Rebels sure are getting used to it with their third in a row.
It was another big night for Aiden Serrano, who picked up 80 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The team also got some help courtesy of Mackenzie Rogers, who rushed for 41 yards and two touchdowns.
Franklin is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 6-4 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 35.5 points per game. As for Midland Legacy, the win got them back to even at 5-5.
Thursday's contest might be decided in the on the ground. Franklin has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 321.2 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Midland Legacy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 209.1. It's looking like Thursday's match might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Franklin might still be hurting after the 46-21 loss they got from Midland Legacy in their previous matchup back in November of 2022. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Midland Legacy's Marcos Davila, who threw for 384 yards and four touchdowns while completing 81.3% of his passes. Now that Franklin knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
