Week 9 Game Balls: Catawba River

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The defenses took center stage for another edition of Game Balls in the Catawba River Region, which you know what they say, defense wins championships. And these guys will play a critical role as we head into the playoffs next week.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='997363' first='Landon' last='Armstrong']</strong> | LB | Rock Hill</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Armstrong did an excellent job of reading and reacting to the plays once the ball was snapped in the Bearcats' 41-7 win over Blythewood on the road on Friday. He showed an ability to move from sideline to sideline making sure tackles when he got to the ball. His hustle was fun to watch on one play as he forced a fumble.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/15100651/65353f7fab92680d30aa07a8' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003e","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-6535c691dbe83"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1142644' first='Najib' last='Yunusah'] </strong>| DB | York</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Yunusah (pictured above) was in the right place at the right time for two turnovers in the Cougars' tight 19-12 win over Lancaster on Friday night. He made a great break on the ball and made a diving interception before forcing a fumble after getting in on the tackle. His counterpart, <strong>Trey Wanger </strong>had made a critical 3rd down stop in the win as well.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/YunusahNajib12/status/1715744345293291811","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/YunusahNajib12/status/1715744345293291811 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1012834' first='Malik' last='Clark'] </strong>| WR | Rock Hill</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Clark had another huge night, this time in the win over Blythewood. He ran crisp routes, like on the slant where he made the defender miss and threw him off the man-to-man coverage. He catches the ball with his eyes and hands and uses his speed to break away from defenders.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/malikgocrxzy/status/1716077571773788464","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/malikgocrxzy/status/1716077571773788464 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1267200' first='Tamarion' last='Watkins'] </strong>| LB | Northwestern</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Watkins was all over the place in the <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2023/10/what-we-saw-polk-northwestern-defeat-south-pointe-in-shootout/">Trojans' 64-31 win over South Pointe.</a> He made tackles at the line of scrimmage and out in space, showing his ability to move around and be the aggressor against the opposing offense. He had 10 tackles, including 1 tackle for a loss.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->