Northwest Rankin is 1-9 against Brandon since September of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Northwest Rankin Cougars will venture away from home to face off against the Brandon Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m.
Northwest Rankin is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Mississippi's top teams: Petal, who was ranked 18th in their home state at the time (Northwest Rankin was ranked 24th). Northwest Rankin fell 20-10 to Petal on Friday. That makes it the first time this season the Cougars have let down their home crowd.
Meanwhile, Brandon came tearing into Friday's match with five straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 23.2 points) and they left with even more momentum. They breezed by the Wildcats to the tune of 42-14. The result was nothing new for the Bulldogs, who have now won five contests by 26 points or more so far this season.
Sladen Shack had an outrageously good game as he threw for 292 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 14.6 yards per attempt. The team also got some help courtesy of Tyson Robinson, who gained 113 total yards and two touchdowns.
Brandon's defense stepped up as well, laying out the QB 11 times. The heavy lifting was done by Khalil Norwood and Ashton Moore, who racked up five sacks between them. Brandon got some further help from Preston Ashley: he picked up a sack, made ten total tackles (2.0 for loss), and defended a pass.
Brandon pushed their record up to 8-1 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 35 points. As for Northwest Rankin, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 5-4.
Things could have been worse for Northwest Rankin, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 27-10 loss to Brandon when the teams last played back in November of 2023. Can Northwest Rankin avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
