Rebels play JA on road for opener

The Leake Academy football team went through its final warm up before regular-season play begins this week.

The Rebels played two 20-minute quarters in the Tri-county jamboree on Thursday, beating Central Hinds 21-7 and Madison St. Joseph 14-7.

“I thought we saw what we needed to see in the jamboree,” Pickens said. “We saw some things that we needed to continue to fine tune on defense. We missed a tackle or two and have to be better there. But we also had five turnovers and four interceptions and that was exciting. On offense, we gave up a big sack and that’s something we have to fix. But after that, I thought we ran the ball extremely well and had some big chunk plays. I thought both running backs ran the ball hard and we had some big holes to run through. We scored 35 points which is good in that amount of time. The only time we find’t score was on the sack and fumble that St. Joe scored on.”

Against Central Hinds, the Rebels feel down 7-0 before scoring three straight times.  The first was on a 7-yard run by Garrett Adcock. The Rebels then got the ball back on a Tyler Winstead interception. George Wilcox then hit Matthew Nowell on a 14-yard touchdown pass to give LA the lead.

After another Winstead interception, Adcock scored on a 19-yard run and Leake led 21-7. The Rebels finished with another turnover as Mason Middleton forced a fumble and got the interception.

Against Madison St. Joseph, the Rebels fell behind 7-0 early again when the Bruins sacked Wilcox, forced a fumble and scooped it up and returned it for a TD.

The Rebels got an early interception from Jack Harkins and then tie-up the game on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Wilcox to Nowell.

After a big stop the Leake defense on fourth down, Adcock scored again on a 27-yard run. Harkins finished off the day with his second interception for the Rebels.

The Rebels will get their first true test of the season as they travel to Jackson Academy to take on the Class 6A Raiders at the Brickyard.

The Raiders played a week zero game last week and beat Bayou Academy 45-0 in their opener.

“It’s going to be a tough test for us,” Pickens said. “They have some really good skill players who will test us. And they have already played a game and you usually make your biggest improvement from week one to week two. I think we are better prepared for them than we were last year. I’m just anxious to see how we compete against them.”