Playing with a depleted roster, the Newton County Academy Generals simply ran out of gas against Carroll Academy on Friday night.
The Generals trailed just 8-7 at the half before the Rebels scored 28 second-half points to pull take a 36-7 win.
With the loss, the Generals fall to 2-3 on the season and will host unbeaten Winona Christian on Friday night for homecoming.
NCA coach Rob Roberts said the injuries that have ravaged his roster caught up with the Generals on Friday night.
“It was a hard-fought game and our kids played hard, we just ran out of gas,” Roberts said. “They just ran it at us all night long and just wore us down. We knew what they were running. They didn’t change anything up. I just seemed like we wore out and they were able to hit some big plays on us. We got tired and started to arm tackle, and you can’t do that against a good team like Carroll. I thought we played hard, we just got outmanned.”
After forcing Carroll to punt on the first series of the game, the Generals took the ball and went 54 yards in eight plays as Hayden Wall scored on a 4-yard run. Hayden West kicked the PAT and the Generals led 7-0.
After swapping punts, the Rebels finally found the end zone to start the second quarter. The Rebels drove 51 yards in four plays as Morgan Mims scored on a 40-yard run.
The Rebels threatened once again in the first half, but an interception by Wesley Williams ended the threat as Carroll led 8-7 at the half.
In the second half, the Rebels started to pull away. After forcing the Generals to punt on their first possession, Mims returned the punt 45 yards to the NCA 36. Hunter Bracken then scored on a 36-yard run on the first play of the half. Mims ran in the two-point conversion and Carroll led 16-7.
After another NCA punt, the Rebels went 80 yards in 11 plays as Mims scored on a 13-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter. Mims hit Reese Fulton on the two-point conversion and Carroll led 24-7.
The Rebels tacked on two late touchdowns as Mims scored on a 69-yard run to make it 30-7.
Carroll senior Austin Smith finished off the scoring when he intercepted a Zander Meeks screen pass and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown with 3:01 left in the game. The try for two failed for the final margin of 36-7.
The Generals had 96 yards passing and 35 rushing for 131 yards of total offense. Colby Hollingsworth led the defense with 18 tackles while Jordan Mason and Kemp Alderman each had 14 apiece. Wall had 13 tackles while Hayze West and Lee Hollingsworth each had 11 tackles. Hayden West had nine tackles in the game while Wesley Williams had six tackles and an interception.
“It’s kind of rough right now,” Roberts said. “I’m just hoping we can get some kids back healthy. We lost another one on Friday night. We need to get some kids back healthy before we start district play in two weeks.”
