Last week, the Newton County Academy Generals scored on a long run to take an early lead on Leake Academy before eventually losing 42-13.
This past week, the Generals did the same thing as they took an early 7-0 lead against Class AAA Leake Academy. And the result was the same as Leake scored 42 unanswered points to take a 42-13 win over the Generals on Friday night at A.L. Thaggard Field.
The Generals fall to 0-5 with the loss and will host Tri-County Academy this week in another tough contest.
The Generals got the ball to start the game and on the first play from scrimmage, Eli Finnegan raced 65 yards for a touchdown with 11:43 left in the first period. Ethan McDill’s PAT was good and NCA led 7-0.
“We came out and hit that big play early and our kids were really excited,” NCA coach Rob Roberts said. “Then they came back and scored and it just took the air out of us. Leake is really good and we are struggling right now. But I thought our kids played hard, we were just outmanned tonight.”
The Rebels responded with a six-play, 52-yard drive as Will-Lawson Harkins scored on a 15-yard touchdown run with 9:38 left in the first. Cameron Brown’s PAT was good to tie the game at 7-7.
The Generals went three and out on their next series but a good punt by Kemp Alderman put Leake at its own 28. Four plays later, Harkins hit Rusty Atkinson on a 41-yard touchdown pass with 6:08 left in the first for a 14-7 lead.
Another three-and-out gave the Rebels the ball right back. This time the Rebels drove 59 yards in six plays as Harkins hit Matt Claire on a 15-yard touchdown pass with 2:57 left in the first for a 21-7 lead.
Harkins added another touchdown pass, a 12-yard pass to Thomas Cheatham in the corner of the end zone to go up 28-7 with 11:31 left in the second. Sam Wilder then scored on runs of 4 and 1 yards as the Generals led 42-7 with 5:30 left in the first half.
With a running clock in the second half, the Generals put one more score on the board as they drove 75 yards in nine plays behind the hard running of Lincoln Jordan. Logan Little capped off the drive with a 1-yard run with 2:06 left in the third. The PAT failed for the final of 42-13.
The Generals had 197 yards of total offense with 190 rushing and seven passing. Finnegan had 113 yards rushing on 10 carries while Jordan had 51 yards on 12 carries.
Kemp Alderman led the NCA defense with eight tackles while Harber Reese had five tackles.
