Two dominant signal callers in Champ Mayo and Anthony King are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Temple Wildcats will head out on the road to square off against the Copperas Cove Bulldawgs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. One thing working in Temple's favor is that they have posted at least 31 points in their last five matches.
Temple is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Bryan 56-34 on Friday. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 116th, while the Vikings are ranked 318th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Temple's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Mayo, who threw for 369 yards and five touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes. Cavalli Nealy helped Mayo out on the ground, rushing for 155 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.7 yards per carry.
Temple was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 333 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Copperas Cove was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They took a hard 30-12 fall against Shoemaker.
Despite the loss, Copperas Cove saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Kj (Lejuandro) Zeigler rushed for 34 yards and two touchdowns. Arthur Miller also helped out with an impressive 82 receiving yards.
Temple has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 6-2 record this season. As for Copperas Cove, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-5.
The upcoming game will be a clash of competing strengths. Temple has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 273.4 passing yards per game. Copperas Cove, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 197.8 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Friday? There's only one way to find out.
Temple came up short against Copperas Cove when the teams last played back in November of 2023, falling 37-29. Can Temple avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
