Tompkins hasn't had much luck against Strake Jesuit recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Tompkins Falcons will square off against the Strake Jesuit Fighting Crusaders at 7:00 p.m. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Tompkins will roll into the matchup after a wild two-game stretch: they didn't score any points last Friday, then bounced right back against Katy Taylor on Thursday. Everything went Tompkins' way against Katy Taylor as Tompkins made off with a 49-28 win. Given the Falcons' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 179th, while the Mustangs are ranked 519th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
This one was won in the trenches and the lion's share of the credit has to go to Robert Bernard and Ethan Meadows. Bernard rushed for 170 yards and four touchdowns on only nine carries while Meadows rushed for 156 yards and two touchdowns on only nine carries. Those 170 rushing yards gave Bernard a new career-high.
Tompkins was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 331 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Strake Jesuit had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 32 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They blew past the Falcons 31-7. The Fighting Crusaders might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four contests by 24 points or more this season.
It was another big night for John Hebert, who rushed for 244 yards and three touchdowns, and also picked up 36 receiving yards. Hebert is crushing it when it comes to rushing yards: he's rushed for at least 151 every time he's taken the field this season.
Strake Jesuit didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Otto Leone and Michael Finger. Strake Jesuit is 6-1 when Leone posts one or more interceptions, but 1-2 otherwise.
Tompkins is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a massive bump to their 6-4 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 36.7 points per game. As for Strake Jesuit, they pushed their record up to 7-3 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road.
Friday's game will pit two of the most dominant backs against one another: Meadows and Hebert. Meadows just won't slow down this season and has run in 18 touchdowns while averaging 116.4 rushing yards per game. Hebert has been a dominant force too and has run in 28 touchdowns while averaging 272.4 rushing yards per game.
Tompkins suffered a grim 35-10 defeat to Strake Jesuit when the teams last played back in October of 2017. Thankfully for Tompkins, Michael Wiley (who rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown while picking up 7.5 yards per carry) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
