Lowndes Academy playing with region title on the line

By George L. Jones

The Selma Times-Journal

Lowndes Academy knows it is already in the playoffs, but there’s still a lot on the line.

The Class AA Region 2 championship will be decided Friday night when the Rebels (7-0, 5-0) take the field against Kingwood (6-1, 5-0).

Kingwood – one of the bigger, more athletic teams in AISA football – relies on an offense based around a 6-foot-4 wide receiver and an accurate quarterback.

“I think we match up pretty good with them,” Rebels coach Art Sullivan said. “They’ve got some quick folks, of course, we’ve got some quick folks, too. They try to take advantage of where you’re weak defensively. Their offensive line averages 230.

“We’ve got the speed to stay with them, but we don’t have the height. I know we can’t stop their receiver from catching passes, but we’re going to try to contain him and their quarterback.”

It’s a pretty safe bet that there will be a lot of offense in this game.

Kingwood can outjump and overpower almost anyone they play, and Lowndes can outrun opponents.

The job of stopping Kingwood got that much harder because of an ACL injury starting linebacker and receiver Bradley Adams suffered in the second play of last week’s game.

Adams was also the team’s punter and kickoff specialist.

“We’ve got a little depth at wide receiver. Of course, we were worried about that last week,” Sullivan said. “Eric St. Cin kicked four punts, and all of them were good. Drew Harrell, who handles the extra points, can kick the ball just as deep as Bradley on kickoffs.

“Where it really hurts us is on defense. He’s a good outside linebacker.”

A stomach virus also kept six starters out of practice earlier this week, but Sullivan said all but one of them is back.