Rebels enter MAIS playoffs as No. 1 against Pillow

Leake Academy’s Levi Brown runs for some positive yards as Carter Walsworth (67) and Jarod Sims(51) block during an earlier game. The Rebels will visit undefeated Heritage Academy Friday night.

Posted Wednesday, November 3, 2021 12:00 am

By ROBBIE ROBERTSON

The Leake Academy football team enjoyed the fruits of a bye week as they started preparations to defend their Class 5A state championship.

The Rebels enter the MAIS playoffs as the No. 1 seed in Class 5A. The Rebels will open the playoffs Friday after a first-round bye and take on No. 9-seed Pillow Academy in the second round in Madden.

But last week was about the Rebels.

“We had a good week,” Leake coach Brian Pickens said. “We gave the kids Monday off and came back and worked hard on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We worked on cleaning up some little things. We had some bumps and bruises after a tough regular season and hopefully we can get healed up a little bit and be ready to go in the playoffs.”

The Rebels will take on Pillow Academy, a team they played in a preseason jamboree at Tri-County. The Mustangs went on the road and overcome multiple deficits to beat homesteading Central Hinds 34-30 in the first-round of the playoffs.

“They are going to be a challenge,” Pickens said. “They have two really big wide receivers that just go up and get the ball and the quarterback throws it really well. They showed a lot of guts against Central Hinds to come back and win that game. They do a good job of mixing up the run and the pass. On defense, they will give you an odd-man front which can give you fits. They are well coached and will play us hard. I look for it to be a good football game.”

The Rebels enter the playoffs with a 9-1 record, losing only to Jackson Academy.

Pillow is 6-5 on the season with wins over Kirk (32-28), North Delta (37-8), Columbia (48-6), Magnolia Heights (28-14) and Washington (37-0) along with the Central Hinds win last week. Their losses are to Hartfield (49-0), Jackson Academy (49-20), Bayou (41-21), Starkville (26-22) and Heritage (35-21).