Leake Academy defense shuts down Simpson
With a district championship on the line, the Leake Academy defense pitched its first shutout since the 2020 state championship game.
The Rebels held Simpson County Academy to 159 yards and got a career-high 256 yards take a 27-0 win over the Cougars on Friday night.
The Rebels finish the regular season with a 7-3 record and as District 2-5A champions. The Rebels finish as the No. 3 seed in the Class 5A playoffs and get a first-round bye win the playoffs. They will host the winner of Simpson and Heritage game.
Head coach Brian Pickens said the Rebels picked a good night to pitch a shutout on defense, the first since the 2020 state championship game.
“The defense played lights out tonight,” Pickens said. “Coby Kemp had a great night at linebackers and the I thought the defensive line dominated the game. And I was proud of the way the whole team tackled. I was concerned coming in because we had come off a big emotional win over Lamar and Simpson had beat Copiah last week. I thought our kids responded with their best game of the year.”
Simpson got the ball to start the game and drove to the Leake 35 before turning the ball over on downs. After a pair of first downs, Leake gave the ball back on a George Wilcox interception.
Leake got the ball right back when Coby Kemp recovered a Simpson fumble but Wilcox threw his second interception of the night to give the ball back to the Cougars.
After forcing a Simpson punt, Leake got deep in Simpson territory again but turned the ball over on downs. Simpson then gave the ball back near midfield on a fumble recovered by Pete Peebles.
Wilcox then hit Matthew Nowell on a 38-yard completion to the Simpson 4. Three plays later, Wilcox finished off the drive with a 6-yard touchdown completion to Nowell, who also hit the PAT to give Leake a 7-0 lead with 4:31 left in the first half.
After a Simpson punt pinned Leake at their own 6, Garrett Adcock ripped off a 52-yard run. Eight plays later, Adcock scored on a 5-yard run with 57 seconds left in the half. Nowell hit the PAT and the Rebels led 14-0 at the half.
“We really thought coming into the week that we would be able to throw the football on them,” Pickens said. “But Simpson did a good job of mixing up coverages and blitzes. And nobody had really run the ball on Simpson but our offensive line really did a good job of getting some movement up front. And Garrett did a good job of running the football. He hit the holes hard and made some big runs.”
The two teams traded possessions to start the second half, each turning the ball over on downs. Leake got its second possession at the Simpson 41 and scored four plays later on a 1-yard run by Adcock with 4:40 left in the third. The PAT failed and Leake led 20-0.
Leake added a late touchdown as Adcock broke a 55-yard touchdown run with 3:49 left in the fourth. Nowell hit the PAT and Leake led 27-0 for the final margin.
The Rebels had another good offensive night with 454 yards of total offense. The Rebels had 290 yards rushing as Adcock had a career-high 256 yards on 26 carries with three TDs. Wilcox had 20 yards on nine carries while JohnDavid Gill had 14 yards on four carries.
Wilcox was 13-of-27 passing for 164 yards with one TD and two interceptions. Nowell had four catches for 61 yards while Majure Chandler had six catches for 46 yards. Matthan Weaver had two catches for 38 yards while Caden Stovall had one catch for 19 yards.
On defense, the Rebels limited Simpson to 159 yards of total offense with 101 yards passing and 58 rushing. Junior Coby Kemp also had a career night as he finished with 17.5 tackles to led the Leake defense. He also had a sack and a fumble recovery. Grayson McDonald had six tackles while Tyler Winstead had four tackles. Nowell had three tackles while Joshua Gray and Jack Harkins had 2.5 tackles.