Broughton hasn't had much luck against Cardinal Gibbons recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Broughton Capitals' road trip will continue as they head out to face the Cardinal Gibbons Crusaders at 7:00 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Last Friday, Broughton was able to grind out a solid victory over Athens Drive, taking the game 34-24.
Xavier Howard went supernova for Broughton, rushing for 166 yards and three touchdowns on only 14 carries, while also catching a touchdown. Those 166 rushing yards gave Howard a new career-high.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Broughton was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 281 rushing yards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 97.4 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last three games they've averaged 178.3.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Gibbons had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 37 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Friday. They blew past the Spartans, posting a 41-7 win on the road. Given the Crusaders' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 12th, while the Spartans are ranked 180th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
A big part of Cardinal Gibbons' victory came down to the chemistry between Gannon Jones and his top target Sam Dodd. Jones threw for 415 yards and five touchdowns while completing 77.8% of his passes while Dodd picked up 228 receiving yards and five touchdowns. With that strong performance, Dodd is now averaging an impressive 101.1 receiving yards per game. Cardinal Gibbons also got help from Brayden Karras, who showed off his sure hands for 84 receiving yards.
The win got Broughton back to even at 4-4. As for Cardinal Gibbons, they pushed their record up to 6-1 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road.
Broughton was taken down by Cardinal Gibbons 63-3 in their previous meeting back in October of 2023. Can Broughton 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
