The Tivy Antlers will head out to face off against the Miller Buccaneers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 922 yards in their previous games.
Tivy is headed into the contest out to prove that what happened against Boerne on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Tivy was dealt a 49-21 defeat at the hands of Boerne. While losing is never fun, the Antlers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 401st, while the Greyhounds are ranked 191st).
Tivy might have lost, but man, President Calamaco was a machine: he picked up 216 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Calamaco showed off some serious burst, connecting on a big catch for 62 yards. Seth Shuler also helped out by tossing the rock for 250 yards.
Meanwhile, Miller had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 50.8 points) and they went ahead and made it five on Thursday. They blew past the Texans 54-0. Considering the Buccaneers have won eight matches by more than 26 points this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Miller's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Broderick Taylor led the charge by rushing for 147 yards and three touchdowns on only eight carries. Taylor's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 122 rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Trevor Long, who threw for 263 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 10.5 yards per attempt.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Miller's defense and their 6.5 sacks. In that department, Steven Richardson was the leader with two. Lamarcus Cullum was another major factor on D, picking up 1.5 sacks, forcing two fumbles, and making nine total tackles (4.0 for loss).
Miller was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 205 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 150 rushing yards in five consecutive matchups.
Miller has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 14.3 points per game. As for Tivy, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 6-4.
The upcoming contest will be a clash of competing strengths. Tivy has deployed a run-first offense that has averaged 159.6 rushing yards a game. Meanwhile, Miller has preferred to attack from the air: they average 275.3 passing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
