Clearwater is on a three-game streak of home wins, while Jesuit is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Clearwater Tornadoes will host the Jesuit Tigers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Clearwater is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They breezed by Countryside to the tune of 78-0 back in October. Given the Tornadoes' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 82nd, while the Cougars are ranked 522nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Clearwater to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jerry Drain, who rushed for 118 yards and three touchdowns on only five carries. Drain has become a key player for Clearwater: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns, but 2-3 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Jaylen White, who threw for 143 yards and three touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Clearwater's defense and their three sacks. In fact, those sacks all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Noel Brown. Another thorn in Countryside's side was Wayne Cunningham, who forced four fumbles and made 14 total tackles.
Meanwhile, while Jesuit put up plenty of points on Thursday, the same can't be said for Middleton. Jesuit really took it to Middleton for the full four quarters, racking up a 42-0 win. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point Jesuit had established a 35 point advantage.
Jesuit's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Will Griffin 2026 Qb led the charge by throwing for 176 yards and three touchdowns. Mikey Vernon was Griffin 2026 Qb's top target, picking up 125 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Jesuit is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 6-3 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 11.7 points per game. As for Clearwater, their victory bumped their record up to 7-3.
Friday's match will pit two of the most dominant signal callers against one another: White and Griffin 2026 Qb. White just won't slow down this season and has thrown 15 touchdowns while averaging 156.8 passing yards per game. Griffin 2026 Qb has been a dominant force too and has thrown 22 touchdowns while averaging 208.6 passing yards per game.
Clearwater ended up a good deal behind Jesuit in their previous matchup back in September of 2020, losing 35-21. Will Clearwater have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more football content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
