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(4) Miami Northwestern Bulls (4-1) vs. (6) Miami Carol City Chiefs (4-1)
Thursday at Traz Powell Stadium, 8 p.m. (ESPN 2)
This is the game that will have all of Dade County talking. Maybe even the entire country because it’s being televised nationally.
An all-time, classic Miami rivalry that got a “shot in the arm” this past year when these two teams played twice – with Northwestern coming up with an unexpected rally to win the regular season tilt and Carol City getting the best of the Bulls in an intense playoff showdown.
Carol City enters this game riding extremely high. The Chiefs are in the midst of quite an impressive defensive streak – having shutout its previous four opponents. In fact, Carol City has only allowed six points this season (all from its 6-2 week one lost to Deerfield Beach).
Better yet, the defending Class 6A champs have seen their offense come alive during that stretch, too. Carol City has totaled 168 points in the past four games and it appears that head coach Benedict Hyppolite – an offensive minded coach – has gotten his team to fully buy into his scheme.
While Carol City’s stock is up right now, Northwestern’s stock took a bit of a hit from its 21-0 loss to independent powerhouse Bradenton IMG Academy on September 30th. Even though the Bulls came back a few days later and easily dispatched Hialeah-Miami Lakes 47-0, everyone keeps replaying the images of the IMG game in their heads when thinking about Northwestern.
Everything that has happened prior to this week won’t matter once these teams get on the field with one another. As good, or bad, as either team has looked up to this point – you have to know that both teams will be intrinsically “geeked up” for this game.
There’s no doubt that this will be a defensive struggle. Like Carol City’s defense, Northwestern’s defensive unit was being stingy and had only given up 14 points – prior to the IMG Academy game that is.
Still, the Bulls defense still has a bevy of talented players (namely Samuel Brooks Jr. and Divaad Wilson) that can make like difficult on Carol City quarterback Marlon Smith and super-talented running back Camron Davis.
The same can be said for the Chiefs defense. Remember, it was in last year’s matchup between these two that Carol City defensive end Yasir Abdullah put everyone on notice of his elite pass rushing skills when he totaled five sacks.
I am inclined to give Northwestern the edge in this game. I think the Bulls could do themselves a huge favor if they chose to run the ball with its collection of running backs – especially Davonne “Bo” Kendrick and use Chatarius “Tutu” Atwell as a decoy.
Carol City will be keying on “Tutu” all night, but Northwestern could counteract all of that by lining up and running the ball at Carol City to set up play-action pass opportunities.
If Northwestern, instead, sticks with the Atwell-centric offense – line up in a spread formation and let “Tutu” make a play with his legs – it has been running up to this point, Carol City could come out on top because they have the athletes to chase Atwell.
Field position and special teams will be big in a game like this.
I’m going to give the edge to Northwestern.
Bald Prediction = Northwestern wins 18-14
