Croatan has gone 9-1 against Dixon recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Croatan Cougars will head out to face off against the Dixon Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. Croatan is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 29.6 points per game this season.
Croatan took a loss when they played away from home last Friday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They breezed by Swansboro at home to the tune of 59-7. The Cougars might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four matches by 31 points or more this season.
Croatan's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Andrew Boucher, who rushed for 107 yards and a touchdown on only 11 carries. Chase Byrd also helped with two touchdowns in total.
Croatan's defense stepped up as well, laying out the QB nine times. The heavy lifting was done by Tristan Highter and Cutter Bryant, who racked up four sacks between them.
Meanwhile, a victory for Dixon just wasn't in the cards on Friday as the team wasn't able to take the lead at any point. They had to suffer through a 44-14 loss at the hands of White Oak. The Bulldogs haven't had much luck with the Vikings recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Despite the loss, Dixon got top-tier performance from JJ Gulat, who rushed for 164 yards and two touchdowns. Gulat's rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 103 rushing yards.
Even though they lost, Dixon was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 241 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 162 rushing yards in eight consecutive matchups.
Croatan's win bumped their record up to 5-3. As for Dixon, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-6.
Croatan didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Dixon in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, but they still walked away with a 21-17 victory. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Dixon's Jziah Hinton, who rushed for 175 yards and a touchdown, and also threw for 70 yards and a touchdown. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Croatan to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
