Even though The Newsome Wolves scored an imposing 35 points on Friday, the Gaither Cowboys still came out on top. Gaither narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past Newsome 37-35. Given Gaither's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 138th, while Newsome is ranked 287th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Leading Gaither to victory were Jayce Nixon and Elija Mason. Nixon threw for 155 yards and two touchdowns while completing 86.7% of his passes, while Mason rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns. Mason hasn't dropped below two rushing touchdowns for three straight games.
Several Wolves players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Noah Guenther, who threw for 342 yards and four touchdowns. Tariq Sapp was in the mix too, providing Newsome with two touchdowns.
Gaither is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a massive bump to their 5-5 record this season. As for Newsome, they are on a six-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 2-8.
Gaither will head out on the road to face off against St. Petersburg at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with St. Petersburg sitting on eight straight wins and Gaither on three. Newsome does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
