Rebels rebound with 35-19 victory

After losing twice to Starkville Academy last season, the Leake Rebels got a measure of revenge last week.

The Rebels used a balanced offensive attack, rolling up 449 yards of offense to take a 35-19 win over the Volunteers on Friday night.

Leake improves to 1-1 on the season and will travel to Bayou Academy on Friday.

Head coach Brian Pickens said it was good to get that first win and saw lots of improvement after a week one loss to Jackson Academy.

“It’s always good to get that first win,” Pickens said. “I thought we showed a lot of improvement from last week, especially running the football. I thought the offensive line did a good job of creating some holes and Garrett (Adcock) ran the ball like we thought he could. I thought George (Wilcox) made some good decisions in the passing game. I thought we showed what we could be on offense and the scary part is there are things that we can do better on both sides of the ball.”

The Rebels struck first in the game. After forcing a turnover on downs and a Starkville punt, the Leake offense got going with a big 51-yard pass from George Wilcox to Matthan Weaver. Garrett Adcock finished the drive off with a 10-yard run to cap off the drive. Matthew Nowell hit the PAT and Leake led 7-0.

After swapping punts, the Rebels used another big play in the passing game as Wilcox hit Weaver on a 51-yard touchdown pass. Nowell hit the PAT and Leake led 14-0.

But the Volunteers struck right back with another big play as they ripped off a 71-yard run and kicked the PAT to cut the lead to 14-7.

The two teams swapped interceptions to finish out the first half.

“I thought it was important to get off to a good start,” Pickens said. “I give Starkville credit, they never laid down and kept on fighting back. But the thing I was proud of was that we never panicked and just kept doing what we do. I thought Matthan (Weaver) head a big game. He had two big catches and the big punt return which was huge. I thought it was a good team win.”

The Rebels got the ball to start the second half and put together an 11-play, 75-yard drive. Wilcox finished off the drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Nowell, who also booted the PAT and Leake led 21-7.

The Volunteers again got a big play out of the running game with a 66-yard run and eventually scored on a 10-yard run. The PAT failed after a bad snap and Leake ld 21-13.

After turning the ball over on downs at the SA 16, Leake pinned the Volunteers inside their own 5-yard line. Weaver then caught a line-drive punt and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. Nowell’s PAT gave Leake a 28-13 lead.

After forcing a Starkville punt, Leake put the game out of reach as the Rebels went 65 yards in eight plays. Adcock finished off the drive with a 30-yard touchdown run and Nowell hit the PAT to give the Rebels a 35-13 lead.

Starkville added a late score to cut the lead to 35-19 but Leake finished off the night by driving the ball to the Starkville 1 to take a knee as time ran out.

The Rebels had a good offensive night with 203 yards rushing and 246 passing for 449 yards of total offense with 21 first downs.

Adcock had a big night with 181 yards rushing on 21 carries with two TDs while John David Gill had 25 yards rushing on nine carries.

Wilcox was 16-of-29 passing for 246 yards with two TDs and an interception. Weaver had seven catches for 166 yards and a TD while Nowell had three catches for 38 yards and a TD. Jack Harkins had four catches for 30 yards while Majure Chandler had two catches for 12 yards.

On defense, Joshua Gray led the Rebels with 10 tackles while Coby Kemp had 9.5 tackles. Grayson McDonald had seven tackles. Owen Hitt and Nowell each had four tackles while Tyler Winstead had three tackles. Caden Monk had 2.5 tackles while Hagan Bobo and Pete Peebles each had two tackles. Nowell also had an interception for the Rebels.

The Rebels will hit the road this week as they make the long trip to Cleveland to take on Bayou Academy.

The Colts are 1-2 on the season with a 24-7 win over Washington. They lost 45-0 to Jackson Academy in week one and lost 15-3 to Copiah Academy last week.

“It’s a long trip which is always a concern,” Pickens said. “And you’ve got a holiday week and those are always tough. We saw them in person against JA and they have some good athletes. They are dangerous and we will have to be sharp on defense.”

Last year, Bayou went 7-4 and beat Leake 40-20 in Madden.