Rebels struggle as Lamar cruises on to 47-13 victory

With a district championship on the line, the Leake Academy Rebels’ offensive woes continued on Friday night.

Leake struggled for the second straight week as Lamar jumped out to an early lead and cruised to a 47-13 win as the Rebels fell on senior night.

Leake fell to 3-6 on the season and will travel to Starkville Academy on Friday night in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs. The Volunteers are 7-4 on the season and beat Leake 39-7 in week three of the season. 

Leake dropped its third game in four contests as they were outgained 616 to 206.

“Lamar is vastly improved over last year and since the first of the season,” Leake coach Brian Pickens said. “We just weren’t able to get off the field on third down and we could never get anything going on offense. We had a good week of practice but just made too many mistakes. We had four turnovers and 10 penalties and it’s hard to win when you do that.”

Lamar got the ball to open the game and went 71 yards in six plays. After a 15-yard loss on the first play of the game, Lamar hit a 63-yard gainer on third down  and scored three plays later on a 1-yard run with 9:37 left in the first. The try for two failed and Lamar led 6-0.

Leake got to the Lamar 32 on its first drive but Welch threw the first of three interceptions to give the ball back to the Raiders. 

Lamar then went 13 plays and scored on an 8-yard run with 1:36 left in the first quarter. The PAT was good and Lamar led 13-0.

Leake put together another good drive as they got deep in Lamar territory but turned the ball over on downs on the first play of the second quarter.

Lamar again went marching as they went 73 yards in 11 plays an scored on a 12-yard pass play with 7:40 left in the first half. The PAT failed and the Raiders led 19-0, a score that held through the first half.

Leake got the ball to start the second half and got a 60-yard return from Charlie Brantley on the opening kickoff. But the drive stalled out and the Raiders sacked Welch on fourth down to end the threat.

After holding Lamar on its next possession, Leake finally got on the board late in the third as they went 79 yards in eight plays as Welch scored on a 7-yard with 2:05 left in the third quarter. Matthew Nowell’s PAT failed and Lamar led 19-6.

The Raiders started to pull away in the fourth as they scored on a 3-yard run with 11:26 left to play to extend the lead to 26-6.

After a Leake punt, Lamar scored on a 45-yard pass with 7:28 left to play. The PAT gave Lamar a 33-6 lead. 

Leake answered with its second touchdown of the game as Welch hit Rhett Atkinson on a 26-yard touchdown pass with 6:21 left to play. Nowell’s PAT cut the lead to 33-13

But Lamar scored two plays later on a 51-yard run with 5:25 left in the game to extend the lead to 40-13. Lamar added a 67 yards run with 14 seconds left in the game for the final margin of 47-13.

Leake had 206 yards passing with 82 passing and 124 rushing. Welch started at quarterback and was 4-of-15 for 82 yards with one TD and three interceptions. Bryce Watkins led the rushing attack with 50 yards on seven carries while Welch had 40 yards on 12 carries. Jake Brown had 29 yards on seven carries. 

Atkinson had two catches for 56 yards while Aiden Watkins had 26 yards on two catches. 

Dylan Jones led the Leake defense with 12 solo tackles and seven assists. Bryce Watkins had four solo tackles and four assists while Camden Marble had four solo tackles and three assists. Bishop Hardin, Hagan Bobo and Lucas Thomas each had four tackles while Brown and Jarod Sims each had three tackles.