Two dominant backs in Tj Morrow and Nathan Mcneil are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Land O' Lakes Gators will square off against the Wiregrass Ranch Bulls at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Land O' Lakes will be hoping to continue their four-game streak of scoring more points each contest than the last.
Having struggled with four defeats in a row, Land O' Lakes finally turned things around against Nature Coast Tech on Friday. They walked away with a 42-31 victory over the Sharks. With that win, the Gators brought their scoring average up to 28.1 points per game.
Morrow continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 209 yards and six touchdowns while picking up 8.7 yards per carry. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards.
Land O' Lakes wouldn't let Nature Coast Tech keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Connor Purcell was the leader in that area as all came courtesy of his dominant performance. He also set a new season high mark in total tackles with 13. Mason Clarke was another major factor on D, picking up 0.5 sacks and making 13 total tackles (1.5 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Land O' Lakes was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 214 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 154 rushing yards in four consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Wiregrass Ranch put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They came out on top against Springstead by a score of 14-3. The 14-point effort marked the Bulls' lowest-scoring matchup of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Among those leading the charge was Ian Wilson Ii, who rushed for 65 yards and two touchdowns. Bryce Randolph also helped out with an impressive 84 receiving yards.
Wiregrass Ranch didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Randolph and Carmelo Joseph.
Land O' Lakes' victory ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 2-5. As for Wiregrass Ranch, their win was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 7-0.
Land O' Lakes skirted past Wiregrass Ranch 37-35 in their previous matchup back in October of 2023. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Wiregrass Ranch's Luke Knight, who threw for 400 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 12.5 yards per attempt. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Land O' Lakes to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
