DOWNTOWN-The 90th installment of the Civil War rivalry was anything but a classic as visiting Lee dismantled host Jackson 46-6 last night at Tiger Stadium to claim its sixth straight win in the series.
With a bigger game looming in eight days, Lee did what it had to do, win and stay healthy. The Generals did that and more, resting its starters by the start of the fourth quarter.
Like it has for nearly ten decades, Lee dominated the game from the get go and it wasn’t even that close.
On the fifth play of the game, quarterback Derrick Jones connected with Jurial Caldwell across the middle for a 33-yard touchdown and just like that the Generals were up 7-0 barely a minute and half into the game.
Lee opened the game with an all aerial assault ordering up passes on their first eight plays of the game. It wasn’t until their third drive that a run was finally called.
“We did some things on film that lead us to believe we could be successful,” Lee head coach OK Small stated, “but really we’re trying to work on some things, make some reads and get out to a fast start.”
From there it only got worse after a quick three and out by Jackson, Cameron Wakefield nearly let a ball slip through his hands fielding a punt but rebounded to pick up the bouncing ball at the 35 and cut left and ran down the left sideline untouched for a 65 yard punt return putting Lee up 14-0 with 8:04 left in the first quarter.
Juan Thomas picked off a Jones pass on the Generals next possession to stop a potential scoring drive, however the momentum was short lived.
After Wakefield busted a 18-yard run down to the 25-yard line, the Generals were knocking on the door again.
Only back-to-back touchdown plays from Jones on a 12-yard keeper and Wakefield on a 9-yard run were called back kept the Generals out of the end zone temporarily.
Jones finally ended the penalty driven drive with a 3-yard keeper putting the Generals ahead 20-0 with 9:37 left till half.
After quarterback Ketwan Mauzon was sacked and assisted off the field with a ankle injury, tailback Antwoine Bryant was moved to quarterback.
On the ensuing play, Bryant scrambled and like a playground play directed his receiver down field and threw up a prayer tossing a 65-yard touchdown pass cutting the lead to 20-6 with 8:31 left in the half.
The momentum was again short lived as Isaiah Hopson returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards untouched down the Jackson sideline putting Lee ahead 26-6 seconds later.
“We’ve been waiting for a game like this,” Small said. “Those were are first two special teams score of the season.”
Following a interception from Eugene Bowman, Jones connected with Wakefield for a 13-yard completion, Donnie Weatherspoon on a 21-yard completion before capping off the drive with a Wakefield 12-yard touchdown run putting Lee ahead 32-6 with 32.7 seconds before half.
Triston Johnson sacked Bryant to force another punt bringing the first half to a close as Lee carried a 32-6 into the locker room.
After a quick three and out to start the third quarter, Lee added to its lead on ensuing drive as Jones scrambled 28 yards down to the 15-yard line on the second play of the drive. Jercoby Groover capped the drive with a 15-yard run to increase the lead to 39-6 to force a running clock the rest of the game.
Artis Maddox fumbled on the Tigers first play of the ensuing drive and was recovered by Dequan Jackson, who also had two sacks and 1 quarterback pressure play.
Coach Small took out all of his offensive starters on the next drive and put in several backups including Noah Vickers and freshman Allan Bass.
Vickers bulldozed his way in from 2-yards to close out the scoring at 46-6 with 2:15 left in the third quarter. Bass busted a 35 yard run late in the game to move Lee past midfield late in the fourth quarter.
Lee (5-1, 3-0) travels to Fletcher next Thursday with the District 3-7A title likely on the line depending on the outcome of Fletcher and Columbia today virtually 10% healthy in no doubt its biggest game of the season.
“My job is to protect the kids and we rotated them in and out,” Small said. “We have back-to-back tough games coming up so we need to stay healthy and we did that tonight outside of bumps and bruises.”
Outside of having 19 plus penalties, Lee played a near flawless game on the night but will need to clean those up with games looming against Fletcher and Sandalwood the next two games.
“We weren’t focused at all,” Small stated, “but most of the penalties can be attributed to the fact it was what 46-6.”
Small went on to say the team didn’t play well and wasn’t focused despite playing in such a historic and long rivalry despite winning its sixth straight in the series.
“The team was flat today and I though the whole team might have taken this rivalry for granted as it once was, Small said.”
Some of that might have been the fact the game was moved up two hours to 5 p.m. for safety reasons after a shooting occurred near Jackson campus last week.
The Civil War
Current streak: Lee has won 6 in a row
1927: Jackson 53, Lee 0 (1-0)
1927: Jackson 28, Lee 0 (2-0)
1928: Jackson 25, Lee 0 (3-0)
1929: Tie 6-6 (3-0-1)
1930: Lee 13, Jackson 0 (3-1-1)
1931: Lee 24, Jackson 6 (3-2-1)
1932: Lee 12, Jackson 6 (3-3-1)
1933: Jackson 13, Lee 0 (4-3-1)
1934: Jackson 26, Lee 6 (5-3-1)
1935: Jackson 21, Lee 0 (7-3-1)
1936: Lee 12, Jackson 0 (7-4-1)
1937: Lee 12, Jackson 7 (7-5-1)
1938: Lee 26, Jackson 7 (7-6-1)
1939: Lee 31, Jackson 7 (7-7-1)
1940: Lee 26, Jackson 14 (8-7-1)
1941: Lee 20, Jackson 13(9-7-1)
1942: Lee 7, Jackson 0 (10-7-1)
1943: Lee 21, Jackson 0 (11-7-1)
1943: Lee 20, Jackson 0 (12-7-1)
1944: Tie 6-6 (12-7-2)
1945: Jackson 13, Lee 6 won Rosenblum Trophy (12-8-2)
1946: Lee 2, Jackson 0 (forfeit), Jackson won 21-20 (13-8-2)
1947: Jackson 23, Lee 18 (13-9-2)
1948: Lee 41, Jackson 0 (14-9-2)
1949: Lee 7, Jackson 0 (15-9-2)
1950: Lee 24, Jackson 13 (16-9-2)
1951: Jackson 14, Lee 14 (16-10-2)
1952: Jackson 52, Lee 7 (16-11-2)
1953: Jackson 6, Lee 0 (16-12-2)
1954: Tie 6-6 (16-12-3)
1955: Jackson 19, Lee 13 (16-13-3)
1956: Lee 9, Jackson 0 (17-13-3)
1957: ?
1958: Lee 17, Jackson 6 (34)
1959: Lee 13, Jackson 7 (35)
1960: Lee 27, Jackson 0 (36)
1961: Lee 24, Jackson 0 (37)
1962: ? (38)
1963: Jackson 14, Lee 13 (39)
1964: Lee 25, Jackson 0 (40)
1965: ? (41)
1966: Lee 7, Jackson 7 (42)
1967: ? (43)
1968: ? (44)
1969: Jackson 14, Lee 6 (45)
1970: Jackson 7, Lee 6 (46)
1971: Jackson 14, Lee 0 (47)
1972: Lee 18, Jackson 14 (48)
1973: Lee 19, Jackson 14 (49)
1974: Lee 42, Jackson 14 (50)
1975: Lee 33, Jackson 13 (51)
1976: ? (52)
1977: ? (53)
1978: Jackson 21, Lee 7 (54)
1979: ? (55)
1980: ? (56)
1981: ? (57)
1982: (58)
1983: DNP
1984: DNP
1985: Lee 53, Jackson 0 (59)
1986: Lee 14, Jackson 0 (60)
1987: Lee 28, Jackson 6 (61)
1988: (62)
1989: (63)
1990: DNP
1991: ?
1992: Jackson 12, Lee 0 (64)
1993: (65)
1994: (66)
1995: Lee 35, Jackson 7 (67)
1995: Lee 32, Jackson 0 (First Round) (68)
1996: Lee 21, Jackson 12 (69)
1997: Lee 56, Jackson 0 (70)
1998: Jackson 41, Lee 0 (71)
1999: Jackson 23, Lee 0 (72)
2000: Jackson 14, Lee 7 (73)
2001: Jackson 21, Lee 14 (74)
2002: Jackson 27, Lee 6 (75)
2003: Lee 22, Jackson 15 (76)
2004: Jackson 34, Lee 28 (77)
2004: Jackson 27, Lee 24 (OT) (First Round) (78)
2005: Jackson 17, Lee 14 (79)
2006: Jackson 27, Lee 21 (80)
2007: Jackson 13, Lee 7 (81)
2008: Jackson 12, Lee 7 (82)
2009: Jackson 30, Lee 6 (83)
2010: Jackson 22, Lee 19 (84)
2011: Lee 28, Jackson 6 (85)
2012: Lee 30, Jackson 14 (86)
2013: Lee 32, Jackson 18 (87)
2014: Lee 26, Jackson 0 (88)
2015: Lee 41, Jackson 14 (89)
2016: Lee 46, Jackson 6 (90)
