MADDEN - So far, Heritage Academy’s football season has largely mimicked the Road Runner Show, the popular Looney Tunes animated cartoon that aired on Saturday mornings back in the day.

     Try as they may, in vain, the Patriots - i.e. Wile E. Coyote - just simply haven’t been able to catch and/or finish off their opposition - aka the Road Runner.

     The latest episode played out here Friday night before a standing room only homecoming crowd at Thaggard Memorial Field, as Leake Academy raced past Heritage in the second half en route to a 38-33 victory.

      The Patriots led 27-13 at halftime only to see the Rebels outscore them 25-6 in the second half - 18-6 in the fourth quarter. Beep-beep! The back-and-forth game featured five lead changes, three coming in the final seven minutes and eight seconds. Matthan Weaver’s 12-yard touchdown scamper around the right edge with :45 seconds remaining proved to be the game-winner, handing the Rebels (1-4) their first win while keeping the Patriots (0-5) winless midway through the season.

     “It’s tough,” said Heritage’s jack-of-all-trades Charlie Fowler, who scored three touchdowns in defeat. “We just didn’t finish the game the way we wanted to or needed to. We took our foot off the gas a little bit, and it ended up costing us the game. We can’t have that. We haven’t given up, though. We’re still fighting.”

     Heritage scored a season-high in points, scoring five touchdowns - or just one less than it had scored in its first four games combined. The offense totaled a season-high 401 yards and the defense came away with four turnovers, including an 18-yard Pick 6 from Adyn Westmoreland that pushed the Patriots’ lead to 21-7 with just under five minutes remaining in the second quarter. They still led by 14 at halftime and had a seven-point cushion (27-20) through three quarters, marking the first time this season they’ve led at either such juncture.

     Still, Heritage came up short once again, even after Fowler momentarily gave the Patriots a short-lived 33-32 lead courtesy of a hard-earned 2-yard touchdown plunge with 4:43 left. A week ago, Pillow rallied from an early 13-0 deficit to post a 28-20 victory over Heritage.The week before, MHSAA Class 1A favorite Biggersville led Heritage by just one touchdown deep into the third quarter. And going back to the first two games, the Patriots trailed heavily-favored Hartfield just 9-0 at halftime and Winston 14-6 early in the third quarter before ending up on the wrong side of lopsided scores.

     Heritage, short on depth after losing 15 starters from a year ago as well as a bevy of players being forced to play both ways, have now been outscored 86-20 in the second half, 37-13 in the fourth quarter.

      “We’re getting better, but at the same time we’ve got to get in the win column,” Smith said. “It’s a good thing that we’re improving, but the bottom line is we need to start winning some games. I thought my guys played hard, and they’re doing what we’re asking them to do . . .we’ve just got to learn how to finish, learn how to win games.”

     The first half, at times, looked like what one would expect from a game pitting two previously winless teams. During one four minute stretch between the end of the first quarter and start of the second quarter, the two teams combined for four turnovers, including back-to-back fumbles on consecutive plays and an interception return for a touchdown by each defense.

     Heritage emerged with a two-touchdown lead at intermission, as Fowler scored on a one-yard run and a 17-yard pass from quarterback Thompson Regimbal coupled with a 43-yard touchdown pass from Regimbal to Xzavier Webber and Westmoreland’s aforementioned interception return in which he broke two tackles on his way into the end zone.

     Regimbal completed 18 of 39 passes for a season-high 321 yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, his counterpart George Wilcox also enjoyed a big night sans a couple of interceptions, especially in the second half when he led the Rebels’ comeback. He completed 12 of 24 passes for 308 yards, including touchdown passes of 58, 62, 47 and 35 yards against a secondary missing safety Will Free (torn ACL). Two of those came in a one minute, 16 second stretch early in the fourth quarter to help Leake surge ahead 32-27. 

     “Those long pass plays that went for touchdowns were big, obviously,” Fowler said. “Those hurt us.”

     Leake finished with 477 yards of total offense, 169 coming on the ground. 

     Said Smith: “They had a lot of big plays, especially in the passing game. We’ve got to be able to get them down to the ground. We didn’t tackle well. That’s something we’re really going to be working on this week. We have to tackle better moving forward.”

     With momentum clearly on Leake’s side, and with the home fans in a frenzy, Heritage calmly responded with a six-play, 75-yard drive capped by Fowler’s short touchdown run for a 33-32 lead. The biggest play on the drive was a 68-yard pass from Regimbal to Cole Shelton.

     Trailing once again, the Rebels answered with a 10-play, 68-yard scoring drive of their own finished off by Weaver on a 3rd-and-8 following a timeout. The biggest play on what turned out to be the game-winning drive was a 29-yard completion from Wilcox to Matthew Nowell. The Patriots, playing without their top playmaker in Cameron Kidd, got the ball back on its own 28-yard line with :45 seconds left. Four incompletions, two shortish completions and one crucial holding call later, time ran out.

     Leake’s players celebrated in glee while Kool & The Gang’s Celebration blared over the PA system. Meanwhile, Heritage’s players were left once again suffering the agony of another close defeat. Kidd, who watched from the fence after suffering a calf injury with 8:41 remaining in the third quarter, hobbled out to join his dejected teammates following the final horn.    

     “It’s tough anytime you lose one of your better players on the offensive and defensive side of the ball,” Smith said. “We definitely missed having him in there. We’re hoping and praying that he will be able to play in our next game.”

     Heritage returns home to play Lamar School (4-1). The Raiders have won four straight since a 17-14 overtime loss to Starkville Academy in their season-opener, including a pair of wins over MAIS Class 6A teams (PCS 42-21 and Jackson Academy (28-26). Lamar blanked Winston Academy 17-0, the same Winston Academy team that beat Heritage 35-6 earlier this season.

     “Lamar has a good football team, one of the better teams we’ve played this year,” Smith said. “They are really solid on defense.”