Rebels cruise to 49-13 victory over Bayou Academy

Last year, Bayou Academy used all sorts of explosive offensive plays to hand Leake Academy its third loss to start season.

The Rebels returned the favor this season. Leake used an explosive offense and stingy defense to jump out to a 35-0 halftime lead and cruise to a 49-13 win over the Colts on Friday night at Jerry Crowe Field in Cleveland.

The Rebels improve to 2-1 on the season and will host Union on Friday night.

For Pickens, it was a complete win with offense, defense and special teams all contributing to the final score.

“I was really proud of our kids,” Pickens said. “It’s a long trip to Bayou and that’s a team that beat us last year. They have some really good skill guys but we came out and took care of business and didn’t let up. We made some big plays on both sides of the football and had some kids step up. I thought our first group tackled a lot better than they did last week and corrected some things and I was proud of that. We got to play everybody in the second half and that’s always a good thing. We haven’t had many nights like that the last few years.”

The Rebels got the first break of the night when Joshua Gray got an interception on a halfback pass. Ten plays later, George Wilcox hit Matthan Weaver on a 4-yard touchdown pass on fourth down for the score. Matthew Nowell’s PAT was good and Leake led 7-0 with 8:23 left in the game.

After forcing a punt on Bayou’s second possession, Leake got back to work on offense, and quickly went 63 yards as Garrett Adcock scored on a 26-yard touchdown run with 2:40 left in the first quarter. Nowell’s PAT gave Leake a 14-0.

After swapping punts, the Leake defense got in on the act when Tyler Winstead intercepted a Bayou pass and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown with 10:32 left in the first half. Nowell’s PAT gave Leake a 21-0 lead.

Bayou drove down to the Leake 20 before turning the ball over on downs. Adcock then ripped off a 66-yard run and Wilcox hit Nowell on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 3:35 left in the half to extend the lead to 28-0.

The Rebels got the ball back right before half and quickly went down the field. After a 31-yard completion to Weaver, Wilcox hit Nowell on a 28-yard touchdown pass with 1:53 left in the half for a 35-0 lead.

“I thought we played about as well as we could play in the second half,” Pickens said. “We were really good on defense and had two interceptions and one for a touchdown. On offense, Garrett (Adcock) had some big runs and the offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage. We threw the ball around and did what we wanted to do there. That was our best half of football this season.”

The Rebels got the ball to start the second half with a running clock. Adcock then ripped off another big run, going 71 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage of the half. Nowell’s PAT made it 42-0.

The Rebels then forced a punt on Bayou’s next possession. The Bayou punter fumbled the snap, was hit by Grayson McDonald and the ball popped up in the air. Brayden Welch caught it in midair and raced 15 yards for a touchdown. Nowell’s PAT gave Leake a 49-0 lead.

Bayou added two scored against the Leake reserves for the final margin.

The Rebels had 178 yards rushing and 118 yards passing for 296 yards of total offense. Adcock had another big night with 173 yards on nine carries. Wilcox was 10-of-15 passing for 118 yards with three TDs. Nowell had four catches for 57 yards while Weaver had five catches for 48 yards and one TD.

On defense, Leake allowed just 171 yards to Bayou with the majority of that in the second half. Leake had 17 players record a tackle as the Rebels emptied the bench in the second half. Grayson McDonald had six tackles and a sack while Winstead had 4.5 tackles an an interception. Coby Kemp had 4.5 tackles while Jake Rudolph had four tackles. Welch and Jack Johnston had 3.5 tackles while Caden Monk had three tackles. Joshua Gray had 2.5 tackles and an interception while Jack Harkins also had 2.5 tackles.

The Rebels will be at home this week as they host Union in a public vs. private matchup.

Union is 0-2 on the season with a pair of tough losses to Choctaw Central (41-34) and Enterprise (23-22).

“I know they lost a lot of players off last year’s team,” Pickens said. “But it looks like they still have a lot of speed on offense. We will have to be really sound in how we line up and have to tackle really well on defense. They’ve had two tight losses so they will be hungry to get their first win and they always play us really tough.”

The Yellowjackets went 12-2 last year and beat Leake 49-21.