The football season remains alive for the Indianola Academy Colonels.
On the strength of last Friday’s 20-7 upset in Yazoo City of higher-seed Manchester Academy in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs, the Colonels will hit the road again today as they move on to round two action.
“Our offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage against Manchester Academy,” noted IA Head Coach Tommy Nester, “and it made all the difference in the world.”
Meanwhile, awaiting the now 2-9 Colonels tonight will be a familiar opponent in the form of the 7-3 Canton Academy Panthers.
Commencing with today’s 7 p.m. kickoff, the Colonels will attempt to keep their season further alive while also avenging a 42-7 regular season loss suffered to the Panthers just two weeks ago.
The winner of tonight’s contest will move on to the November 10 semi-final game and play the winner of tonight’s Greenville St. Joe versus North Delta School of Batesville match-up.
Canton Academy, the defending 3A State Champion and two-time District 2-3A champion, is the number two seed among all 3A teams and enjoyed a bye last Friday night.
“Canton Academy has an explosive offense,” said Coach Nester, who has now led his Colonels teams to the playoffs 12 consecutive seasons, and an impressive 16 times during his tenure at Indianola Academy.
Canton Academy is enjoying a four-game win streak and has indeed used its offense to help generate those victories.
Over the course of their last four outings, the Panthers have averaged over 41 points per game.
In last Friday’s victory over Manchester Academy, the IA offense opened the game in dominating fashion.
Striking through the air and on the ground, the Colonels needed less than three minutes and only six plays to score their first touchdown of the evening.
With quarterback Lawson Zepponi plunging over from two yards out for the score, the Colonels took a quick six-point lead.
Meanwhile, the IA defense, which yielded but 115 yards of total offense to the Mavericks, also began the game by owning the line of scrimmage and narrowly missed recording a shutout.
The Colonels would find the end zone again almost six minutes later when Haygon Sheedy raced 12 yards through the Mavericks’ defense for another IA touchdown.
Although the second quarter was scoreless, the Colonels took a 12-0 lead to the dressing room at halftime.
The Colonels would post their final points of the game with 4:20 remaining in the third period when Abel Williamson powered his way six yards for the touchdown.
The senior running back then ran in the 2-point conversion attempt to give IA a commanding 20-0 lead.
Manchester Academy would finally spoil IA’s shutout bid with a 3-yard touchdown pass within the first minute of the fourth quarter to take the game to its’final 20-7 margin.
Offensively, the Colonels recorded 224 yards of rushing on 43 attempts and Williamson’s 130 yards on 21 carries paced this ground attack.
Adding another 65 yards with his dozen rushes was Walker Perkins.
Through the air, Zepponi completed four of his nine passes for 99 yards with EJ Hall pulling in three of those passes for 88 yards — one being a 43-yard reception in the game’s opening drive.
Defensively, the Colonels allowed but 48 yards of rushing to the Mavericks, who hit the line 26 times.
The Mavericks’ passing game found difficulty as well as it completed but nine of 20 attempts for 67 yards and two interceptions.
Leading the IA resistance was Matthew Gary with seven solos and two assists while Weston Farmer recorded two blocked punts to go along with his six solo tackles, two assists, and sack.
Adding three solo tackles and four assists was Perkins while Carson Miller tallied three solos and two assists.
Picking off two Manchester Academy passes was Williamson while Gage Berry forced one fumble to go along with his three solo, one assist night of play.
