PREP FOOTBALL: Lee-Scott ready for Bessemer

Will Garner doesn’t want it to end.

The Lee-Scott senior — the team’s leading rusher and one of its leading tacklers — is not quite ready to hang up his pads and focus on a burgeoning collegiate golf career.

Not until at least Nov. 20.

“When it’s done, I’m gonna miss it,” Garner said. “Hopefully, we’ve got three more games to play, and we’re gonna cherish every one of them.

“And I think we have a legitimate shot of playing three more games.”

Garner says this with the knowledge that the Warriors’ first-round opponent — Bessemer Academy — is no slouch.

But he also says it with the knowledge that Lee-Scott has been narrowing the gap to its frequent foe over his three years on varsity.

“Every time we play them, the deficit keeps getting closer and closer,” Garner said. “We know that, and I think they know that now.
We’re going up there this time knowing we have a shot to knock these guys off.”

Bessmer, which went 84-5 from 2001 to 2007, has now had back-to-back three-loss seasons.

When Lee-Scott played the Rebels to open the 2008 season, Bessemer won, 38-0. When the two teams met in the playoffs that season, Bessmer won again, 25-12.

When the Warriors and Rebels met again this August, Bessemer won again, 17-10.

Lee-Scott has lost 12 in a row against Bessemer Academy. But a first-round playoff trip to face the Rebels is no longer a death sentence.

And those days when the Rebels shut out the Warriors in five straight seasons are gone.

“Six times we’ve played them in the last four years, four of them at Bessemer,” Warriors coach Robert Maddox said. “When we played them at the beginning of the year, we felt like we at least had a chance to win the ballgame. And that hasn’t always been the
case here when it comes to Bessemer.

“That hasn’t always been the case with anybody and Bessemer.”

The chinks in the Rebels’ armor came all at once at the beginning of October.

First came a 17-point loss to Monroe, the current No. 7 team in the state. Then came a shutout defeat at the hands of Morgan, a team that Lee-Scott had handled somewhat easily three weeks earlier.

Then came a 9-point loss to No. 5 Pike Liberal Arts, a team Lee-Scott had taken to the wire the previous week.

Despite two convincing wins to end the season, Bessemer now walks among the mortals. At least according to Lee-Scott players.

“The first game this year we should’ve beat them,” junior wide receiver/defensive back Tucker Carl said. “I know we should beat them this time.”

Lee-Scott has been through the ringer this season, with its four losses all coming against top-10 teams Fort Dale (No. 1), Patrician (No. 2), aforementioned Pike Lib and Bessemer (No. 10).

It’s fitting that the Rebels made their way back into the top 10 just in time for their meeting with Lee-Scott: Friday’s matchup will mark the sixth time in 11 games the Warriors have run up against a ranked team this season.

“It’s definitely got us battle-tested,” Garner said. “We’ve definitely been through tough situations and come out of tough situations.
So now we know that if we come up on situations like that again, we know what to do and can get ourselves out of them.”

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