WEST ORANGE – The West Orange-Stark Mustangs will continue their quest for yet another district title Friday night as they will hit the road to face the Liberty Panthers in District 10-4A Division II action.

The Mustangs (5-1, 2-0) were able to shake off some rust last week after their bye week to explode past Hardin-Jefferson 49-12.

The Mustangs have been dominant on defense once again this year, especially the last two weeks. In their huge 17-9 10-4A opening win at Silsbee, the Mustangs held the explosive Tigers to just 202 yards and limited the Hawks to just 146 last week. WO-S is now allowing just 202.2 yards a game this season.

The Panthers (3-4, 0-2) will enter the game reeling after dropping their first two 10-4A games to Hamshire-Fannett (36-24) and Silsbee (38-14).

In non-district the Panthers snagged wins over Cleveland (69-13), Livingston (48-7) and Huntington (56-14) and had losses to Huffman (34-7) and Splendora (16-14).

The Panthers will look to slow the game down with their grind-it-out Double-Wing Offense in which they love to run the ball with a lot of different options.

Sophomore quarterback Austin Walker helps guide the offense as he looks to get the ball to senior fullback Jordan Leday and tailback John Harris-Hines. The Mustang defense is allowing just 132 rushing yards a game.

The Mustang offense will look to hit the Panther defense with some big plays with their spread offense.

WO-S is pumping out 353 yards a game, 229.3 on the ground and 123.7 in the air.

Mustang sophomore running back Elijah Gales scored on nearly half of his touches against H-J last week. He rushed for 174 yards and five touchdowns on just 11 carries against the Hawks. Gales now has 779 yards and 13 TDs on 92 carries for the season. Fellow backs sophomore JaQualion Chaney (24-162-3) and senior Terry Harris (12-115-1) also provide a spark.

Mustang quarterback Jerren Terrell has completed 60-of-101 passes for 710 yards and four scores as he looks to get the ball to a plethora of receivers in Jayson Ziegler (17-126), Chavon Crawford (11-79), Andre Thomas (7-107) and Artavious Samuel (6-116). Terrell has also rushed for 95 yards and three TDs.

The Mustangs downed the Panthers 33-24 at Hooks Stadium last year despite being outgained 378-295 but WO-S was able to cash in on some big turnovers to pull it out.

If WO-S downs Liberty, a big game could be looming at WO-S next week for the outright 10-4A title against Hamshire-Fannett. That’s only if H-F (6-1, 2-0) defeats Silsbee (4-4, 2-1) at home this Friday.

Liberty will venture to Hardin-Jefferson next week.