Newton County Academy football coach Rob Roberts tried to warn his team but they apparently weren’t listening.
After winning three straight games, Roberts said the Generals had a “terrible” week of practice in preparation for Class AAA Leake Academy.
And the Generals played liked they practiced as Leake raced out to a 35-0 first-half lead and cruised to a 35-8 win on Friday night.
NCA falls to 3-2 on the season and will travel to Tri-County Academy this week in a showdown of Class AA contenders. Leake improves to 3-2 and will host Canton.
Roberts was visibly upset with the Generals who allowed Leake to jump out to a 35-0 lead.
“We just weren’t ready to play,” Roberts said. “They goofed off in practice all week. I told my daughter this week that Leake was going to beat the tar out of us and they did. It’s my fault, I guess. I let them goof off, but it won’t be like that this week. They practiced terrible all week and Leake hung 35 on us and it could have been a lot worse. We just didn’t show up to play football.”
The Generals struggled on offense as they went three-and-out on their first four series. Meanwhile, Leake went 50 yards in six plays as Shawn Myers scored on a 16-yard run with 7:35 left in the first quarter.
After forcing another NCA punt, Leake’s Sam Wilder hit the sideline on a 71-yard punt return with 6:07 left for a 14-0 lead.
After another NCA three-and-out, Wilder ripped off a 59-yard run with 2:24 left in first period and Leake led 21-0.
After NCA turned the ball over on downs, Leake’s Will-Lawson Harkins hit Matt Clair on a 21-yard touchdown pass with 11:09 left in the first half for a 28-0 lead.
It wasn’t until their fifth drive that the Generals got a first down but were forced to punt. It took Leake just four plays to go 61 yards as Wilder scored on a 5-yard run with 6:21 left in the half for a 35-0 lead that stood until halftime.
“I told them all week that 25 (Wilder) was going to run all over us,” Roberts said. “And that’s exactly what he did. He’s not a big back but he runs hard. We had a bunch of three-and-outs and couldn’t do anything on offense. It was 28-0 before we ever got a first down. We just didn’t do anything on either side of the football. But maybe this will be a wakeup call for them.”
With the clock running in the second half, NCA finally got on the board late in the fourth quarter when Gunner Bounds scored on a 29-yard run with 4:34 left in the game. Logan Little ran in the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 35-8.
Leake had 370 yards of total offense with 306 yards in the first half while NCA had 127 yards of total offense. Braxton Rose had 45 yards rushing for 16 carries while Little had 24 yards on five carries and Bounds had 28 yards on two carries.
Little was 6-of-8 passing for 64 yards while Kemp Alderman had three catches for 31 yards. Rose had eight tackles on defense while Austin Pippin and Ashton Crosby each had five tackles.
