Adams County Christian School head coach David King expressed his respect for his former assistant coach Chris McGraw, but the veteran got the best of his former protégé in Woodville Monday night.

The MAIS Class AAA Rebels (2-2) won their second-straight game, topping the defending A-AA champion Wilkinson County Christian Academy (2-1) in a 40-16 rout.

“To come on the road and beat a very good football team, I was proud of us,” King said. “The effort was there.”

WCCA forced ACCS to go three-and-out on its first drive, but were pinned deep trying to block Cristofer Thompson’s punt.

After holding the Rams to two yards and a punt on the following drive, ACCS struck first. Julian Wilson set the Rebels up at the 6-yard line with a 25-yard run. ACCS ran a sweep around the left end to George Scott to take a 6-0 lead.

The deep ACCS backfield continued to gouge WCCA for large chunks of yardage. Approaching three minutes remaining in the first quarter, DyKevis Ford ran 26 yards to the red zone, and Wilson darted in between the hash marks and punched in the end zone from the 1-yard line.

“We were playing ball like we were supposed to and being explosive,” Wilson said.

WCCA had some chances in the red zone early on, but failed to score on the ACCS defense until the 8:35 mark in the third quarter.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Rams controlled the ball from the 11-yard line, but turned over on downs. ACCS held the Rams to 128 total yard in the first half.

The Rams drove down to the red zone to start the second half, but the scoring opportunity was snuffed out once again when Rams quarterback Caleb Poole was stuffed at the 4-yard line.

“They’re as sound a defense as you’re going to see,” McGraw said. “If you can score against them, you can score against anybody.”

Poole led WCCA rushing with 128 yards. Running back Steven Franks tallied 93 rushing yards and one touchdown. Braden Passinger scored WCCA’s second touchdown.

ACCS spread the ball around, although two running backs did the bulk of the running. Ford, who did not have an offensive carry in the second half, finished with 151 yards and two touchdowns. Wilson had 72 yards and two touchdowns. A total of six different players carried the ball for ACCS in the game.

“When you keep those guys fresh and rotate them in, it makes it tough on the defense,” King said. “I liked at the end there when we got some of the younger guys in.”

ACCS is looking forward to its district schedule when the Rebels will travel to Brookhaven Academy.

“It’s a bizarre year because we had the first two games that weren’t fair as far as the judgment because of the competition we played in the early part of the year,” King said. “This team is coming together, and they want good things to happen for each other.”

While McGraw acknowledged Friday’s loss was tough to stomach, he said his team has to keep a short memory as the Rams prepare for AAA Central Hinds.

“I don’t believe in playing terrible teams,” McGraw said. “I believe in playing up in classification as much as we can.”