Published: November 02, 2007 01:35 pm            

Scott Central runs through Lake

LAKE — Lake football coach Bill Ingersoll asked Scott Central coach Mickey Bounds after Thursday night’s game he told his Rebels that made them so mad.

Bounds laughed. Whatever it was, it worked.

Led by three 100-yard rushers, Scott Central pounded Lake 34-24 to secure the No. 3 spot out of Division 5-2A Thursday night at A.F. Hollingsworth Field.

Scott Central improves to 6-3 on the season and 4-2 in 5-2A, good enough for the No. 3 seed in the division. Lake is 5-5 and 3-3 and finishes fourth in 5-2A.

On the night, the Rebels had 439 yards of total offense with 421 coming on the ground. Chris Ficklin led the Rebels with 188 yards on 11 carries while Eric Wagner had 118 yards on 16 carries while Deontae Brown had 13-106.

“The team we saw tonight was the best team we’ve seen all year,” Ingersoll said. “But they haven’t done that to anybody else all year long. And we haven’t had that done to our defense in a long time. But we can’t just continue to dig ourselves in holes in the first half.”

For Bounds and the Rebels, the victory secured them third in the division where they will likely match up with Wesson.

“I really think we may be peaking at the right time,” Bounds said. “We really ran the ball well tonight. I was surprised that we ran it as well as we did since we both basically do the same thing.”

Scott Central struck first as Ficklin broke a 54-yard run with 11:32 left in the first quarter. The try for two failed and Scott led 6-0 early.

Lake responded with a six-play scoring drive that started with a Timothy Bridges 41-yard burst and ended with Jeremy Johnson bulling in from 9 yards out with 8:36 left in the first. Lake’s try for two failed to leave the score tied at 6-6.

Scott again struck quickly out of its wing-T offense with back-to-back 31 yards gains as Brown scored on the last one with 7:24 left in the first for a 12-6 lead.

Lake took its only lead of the game on its next possession by driving 67 yards in 11 plays with Johnson scoring on a 1-yard plunge with 2:18 left in the first period. Bridges ran in the two-point conversion for a 14-12 Lake lead.

But that didn’t last long as Scott Central struck quickly again with Ficklin capping off a six-play, 63-yard drive with a 25-yard run with 11:53 left in the first half for a 20-14 lead.

After forcing the Hornets to punt, Scott again scored quickly as Wagner broke loose on a 43-yard with 10:13 left in the second for a 26-14 lead that lasted until the half. In the first half, Scott Central rushed for 328 yards.

“I really don’t know what to say about the first half,” Ingersoll said. “They certainly didn’t surprise us with anything they did. We just didn’t tackle and got whipped up front.

“But I give our kids a lot of credit for hanging in there and making it a game in the second half. You just can’t put yourself in a hole like that and come back against good teams.”

After holding Scott Central to begin the third quarter, Lake made the game close as the Hornets scored on an 8-play, 72-yard drive. Demario Combs covered the last 5 yards, scoring with 5:01 left in the third. Bridges ran in the two-point conversion to cut the score to 26-22.

But the fast-paced Scott Central offense didn’t need long to take the game back under control as Ficklin broke a 53-yard score with 3:45 left in the third. The try for two was good and Scott Central led 34-22.

Lake blocked a Scott Central punt in the fourth that resulted in a safety for the final points of the game.

Lake finished the night with 343 yards of total offense and 16 first downs. Johnson had 150 yards rushing on 18 carries and two touchdowns while Bridges had 67 yards on nine carrie and Combs 65 yards on 18 carries.

        

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