A feisty cat fight will be fought when the Newberry Panthers face off against the Cocoa Tigers at 6:00 p.m. on Friday... Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Newberry comes in on nine and Cocoa on five.
Newberry is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They strolled past Bradford with points to spare, taking the game 34-19. Newberry's victory was all the more impressive since the Tornadoes were averaging only 9.36 points allowed on the season.
Meanwhile, Cocoa made easy work of Berkeley Prep on Friday and carried off a 37-12 win. The result was nothing new for the Tigers, who have now won eight games by 25 points or more so far this season.
Latrison Lane had a dynamite game for Cocoa, rushing for 142 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 7.5 yards per carry, and also picking up 43 receiving yards. Those 142 rushing yards gave Lane a new career-high. Brady Hart was another key player, throwing for 222 yards and a touchdown.
Cocoa was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 215 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 70.3 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five matches they've averaged 157.8.
Cocoa didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Cj Hester. Javion Hilson was another major factor on D, picking up two sacks, forcing a fumble, and making four total tackles.
Newberry pushed their record up to 10-2 with the victory, which was their fourth straight on the road. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 32.8 points per game. As for Cocoa, they have been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 8-3 record this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
