The Southern Academy Cougars secured a spot in the state playoffs in Troy by defeating the Wilcox Academy Wildcats yesterday 21-0.

The last game between these two schools this season was described as a bloodletting by Southern Academy coach, Shaun Bonds. This game would be totally different.

This week the team mixed up their offense and gave the Wildcat defense a lot of different looks to deal with. Throwing in screen passes and changing the offense at the half to kept Wilcox off balance.

Southern Academy quarterback, John Kynard, proved his coach right by passing for 123 yards off of five completions. He also had no interceptions and only three incomplete passes.

Big passing plays opened the running lanes up for Southern Academy and Matt Bouler capitalized by picking up 108 of the Cougar&8217;s 221 yards on the ground. He also managed to find the end zone twice and account for 12 of Southern Academy&8217;s 21 points.

The Cougar defense held the Wildcats to only 173 total yards in the game. To compound being held by a tough defense Wilcox Academy turned over the ball four times, one fumble and three interceptions. Southern Academy capitalized by returning the three interceptions for a net 102 yards.

The only thing that could slow Southern Academy down were the yellow hankies strewn across the field. They ended the game with 12 penalties for 100 yards &8212; the majority of them holding calls.

Southern Academy&8217;s effort during the game earns them a trip to Troy next weekend to hunt down a third consecutive state championship in their division.