The Pine Tree Pirates will square off against the Chapel Hill Bulldogs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Pine Tree is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Henderson: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that the Pirates blew the Lions out of the water with a 49-21 final score. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Pirates.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Chapel Hill). They blew past Mabank, posting a 75-16 win. The victory continues a trend for the Bulldogs in their matchups with the Panthers: they've now won four in a row.
Pine Tree better keep an eye on Malik Gee. He was instrumental in Chapel Hill's win, throwing for 237 yards and six touchdowns on only 15 passes, while also rushing for 75 yards. That's the most rushing yards Gee has posted since back in November of 2024. Damarcion Blaylock was another key player, picking up 138 receiving yards and three scores.
Wins are hard to come by when you can't run the rock, something Chapel Hill proved: they limited Mabank to a paltry 2.6 yards per carry. The team can thank Noah Prieto for the heroic effort on defense: he. Chapel Hill didn't have any issues in that department, having averaged 11.8.
Chapel Hill's defense also made the game a nightmare for Jaxon Copeland, racking up eight sacks. The heavy lifting was done by Kaeden Franklin and Jeremiah White, who racked up six sacks between them. Franklin has been hot for a while, having also posted six or more total tackles the last 14 times he's played.
Chapel Hill's win bumped their record up to 5-3. As for Pine Tree, they now have a winning record of 4-3.
Pine Tree didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Chapel Hill in their previous matchup back in October of 2024, but they still walked away with a 20-14 victory. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Gee, who rushed for 118 yards and one TD while picking up 7.4 yards per carry, and also threw for 133 yards and one touchdown. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will the Pirates still be able to contain Gee? There's only one way to find out.
