Last Friday the Cougars and their large contingent of faithful fans traveled up Hwy 35 and through the woods to Madden, Mississippi, to face longtime rival the Leake Academy Rebels.
This was the first district game for the Cougars and it would be played in what is always a very tough place to win a football game. This proved true once again as the game wouldn’t be decided until the final possession of the game. The first quarter of the game saw the Rebels control the clock with a strong running game. The Rebels got on the board first with 2:38 to go in the quarter with a 4 yard touchdown run. The extra point was good and the Rebels led 7-0 going into quarter number two. The Rebels controlled much of this quarter as well with the running game. With 6:57 to go, the Rebels punched in touchdown number two with a 2 yard run. Again the extra point was good and the Rebels now led 14-0. The Rebels got the ball back late in the half and again took it downfield and scored with only seven seconds remaining to take a 20-0 lead into halftime. Whatever adjustments and whatever was said at halftime worked as the Cougars came out on fire in the third quarter and scored quickly. With 10:31 to go in the 3rd, Carter Cockrell took a handoff and ran off tackle for a 6 yard touchdown run to put the Cougars on the scoreboard. Sawyer Dunn’s extra point was good and the score was 20-7, Leake Academy in the lead. The rest of the third quarter and through the first part of the fourth quarter both teams struggled to get much going offensively. Finally with 5:51 to go in the final quarter quarterback Barrett McKenney dropped back to pass and found Sawyer Dunn open for a 32 yard touchdown strike and now it was game on! The extra point by Dunn was good and the new score was now 20-14. The Cougars got the ball back with about 3 minutes to go in the game. They faced a huge fourth down and about 20 when McKenney hit Braden Duncan for a big fourth down conversion. Right after that Carter Cockrell rips off a big 55 yard touchdown run to tie the game at 20-20 with 2:11 to go. Sawyer Dunn comes in and make his third extra point of the game and now the Cougars lead by one point. But to the Rebels’ credit they take the kickoff and drive down the field in less than 2 minutes to score with :33 seconds remaining in the game. The two point conversion was good and there was just not enough time left for the Cougars to do anything after that score. Leake Academy comes out victorious with a hard fought 28-21 win.
The final stats show Leake outgaining the Cougars in total yards 261 to 237 with most of Leake’s yardage on the ground. Carter Cockrell once again rushed for over 100 yards with 116 yards on the ground, and McKenney was 10 of 17 through the air for 119 yards. Both Chanse Funchess and Braden Duncan had 3 catches for the Cougars. The Cougars were led on defense by Matt Adcock and his 14 tackles and Keaton Boykin with 7.5 stops. This was a tough one to swallow for the Cougars but I have no doubt they will bounce back, and I have a feeling these two teams could meet up again in the playoffs. It would be nice for that to happen and maybe even get them down in “The Hole” for a revenge playoff game.
Next week the Cougars come home for the first time this year to play a really talented team in Madison St Joe. They feature a 5 star quarterback and a lot of talented players so it should be a great ballgame. We ask all Cougar fans to come out and show great support for these young guys as they have been on the road all year and need a strong showing of Cougar supporters there to give then them a great welcome home!
