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NATCHEZ — Adams County Christian School will seek to avenge last year’s loss at Silliman Institute when the Rebels play host to the Wildcats this Friday night at Bobby Marks Stadium in a key MAIS District 3-5A game for both teams.

Kickoff between the visiting Silliman Wildcats (3-2, 0-1) and the host ACCS Rebels (5-1, 2-0) is slated for 7 p.m. The Rebels lost on the road to the Wildcats 40-31 after a big home win over Oak Forest Academy.

ACCS assistant coach Matthew Freeman said the Rebels cannot afford to fall into that same trap this year. Which is one of the focal points they are working on in practice this week.

“Just make sure we’ve got everything ready so we don’t make the mistakes we made last year,” Freeman said. “Last year we made a bunch of mistakes that hurt us.”

This is also the Rebels’ annual “Pink Out Game” to raise awareness for breast cancer. Freeman said he lost his mother to breast cancer and that he always looks forward to this particular game.
“We do a Pink Out Game every year for breast cancer awareness. We’ll wear our pink jerseys. It’s just raising awareness about breast cancer,” Freeman said. “This week we have the Pink Out Game. Next home game for us is homecoming. Then (the next home game) is Senior Night.”

Last Friday night, the Rebels got a one-yard touchdown plunge from senior quarterback Coleman Carter as time ran out to give them a thrilling 28-23 win over the Oak Forest Yellow Jackets to stay undefeated in district play. Meanwhile, the Wildcats snapped a two-game losing streak with an emphatic 34-0 win at Centreville Academy.

Freeman said that the Rebels got out of last week’s game against OFA pretty healthy and that Carter is almost back to 100 percent. Even though Carter had 70 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground to go with 150 passing yards and one touchdown, he also threw two interceptions. He cannot afford to make those kind of mistakes if the Rebels are to come out victorious Friday night. Especially considering that Silliman has a good quarterback of its own that came over from one of its nearby non-district rivals.

“Offensively, they like to run the ball. They’ve got a quarterback who transferred from Centreville Academy, Parker Nettles. He’s just good at improvising and making something when it’s not there. We’ve got to keep him contained and have good coverage on the back end,” Freeman said.

As for what concerns Freeman the most about Silliman’s defense, Freeman said, “They like to take away the deep ball. They’ll try to keep us from throwing the deep ball. They run a cover-4, cover-3. They’re going to try to make us beat them by running the ball and throwing short passes.

Freeman noted that the Wildcats run several formations on offense and that the Rebels’ defense will have to be focused on containing what is thrown at that unit.

“They run a power-I. They run some spread. They’re going to try to play power football and they’ll try to spread you out,” Freeman said. He added that his defense will keep doing the same thing it’s been doing all year and that there will be no changes.”

For ACCS to come out victorious and stay undefeated in district play, Freeman said that running backs Adrian Walker and Sean Kerry Cothern will have to have big games, noting, “We need to establish the run with those two.”

Freeman said that the front seven on defense will have to keep Nettles contained in the pocket and not allow him to improvise. They will also need to stop the Wildcats’ running attack.

“Our defensive line and linebackers will need to do their job. They’ve cannot let him get outside,” Freeman said. “They’ve (also) got a good power running game.”