Pender has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will square off against The West Columbus Vikings at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
After soaring to 106 points the game before, Pender were a bit more limited in their match on Friday. They took a serious blow against Whiteville, falling 56-6. While losing is never fun, Pender can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 318th, while Whiteville is ranked 137th).
Even though the team lost, they still came through with several impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Jordan Hansley, who rushed for 81 yards.
Meanwhile, West Columbus had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25 points), and they went ahead and made it four on Friday. They strolled past East Bladen with points to spare, taking the game 24-8. West Columbus pushed the score to 21-0 by the end of the third, a deficit East Bladen cut but never quite recovered from.
Jaylen Bellamy was the offensive standout of the matchup as he rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown on only ten carries. Bellamy was no stranger to the big play, turning on the jets for a run that went for 55 yards.
The team's defense also helped out by holding East Bladen to a paltry 209 yards. A big part of that defensive dominance came down to West Columbus' ability to keep the quarterback under pressure: the team laid him out five times before it was all said and done. The heavy lifting was done by Tony Jordan and Dj Bryant who racked up four sacks between them.
West Columbus' win bumped their season record to 7-1 while Pender's loss dropped theirs to 4-4.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's contest: Pender has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 372.9 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like West Columbus struggles in that department as they've been averaging 191.4 per game. It's looking like Thursday's game might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Pender came up short against West Columbus when the teams last played back in October of 2022, falling 26-22. Can Pender avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
