The Bruton Panthers will square off against the Grafton Clippers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. One thing working in Bruton's favor is that they have posted at least 31 points every time they've taken the field this season.
Bruton's offense will try to repeat the strong performance it gave on Friday, when they got past Northumberland's usually-dominant defense. Bruton breezed by Northumberland on the road to the tune of 42-12. Fans of the Panthers have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season has ended in a blowout of 20+ points.
Peter Henderson had a dynamite game for Bruton, rushing for 209 yards and a touchdown while picking up 8.7 yards per carry. Henderson's longest rush was for an incredible 86 yards. Another player making a difference was Ashton Bell, who rushed for 19 yards and two touchdowns.
Bruton wouldn't let Northumberland keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Bruton can thank Paul Mutter and Troy Walson for forcing both of them. With that strong performance, Mutter is now averaging an impressive 5.2 total tackles per game. Bruton got some further help from Rumante Todd: he picked up a sack and made seven total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Bruton was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 296 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Grafton had to endure a four-game losing streak dating back to last season, but that streak is no more. They skirted past New Kent 9-6. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Clippers have posted against the Trojans since October 1, 2015.
Bruton's victory bumped their record up to 4-0. As for Grafton, their win (their first of the season) made their record 1-3.
Bruton came up short against Grafton when the teams last played back in September of 2023, falling 21-10. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Grafton's Makale Barnett, who rushed for 204 yards and a touchdown on only 15 carries. Now that Bruton knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
