Covenant rolls to GICAA championship

Leon Simmons showed Creekside Christian in Friday night's GICAA Division I-AA championship game that Covenant has more weapons than Khristian Tate.

With Tate, who entered Friday's game with 1,956 yards and 28 touchdowns, drawing the Cougars' focus, Simmons ran for 125 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries and added a pair of interceptions on defense to help the Rams complete a perfect season with a 42-22 victory.

"Leon Simmons had a great game," Rams head coach Chris Oxford said of the fleet junior, who scored on a 49-yard run and added another run of 53. "They were keying on Tate, and he came through."

That's not to say Tate didn't have an impact on the Rams 13th win of the season. The 6-foot-1, 250-pound senior still ran for 96 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries. He also completed a pass for 25 yards.

The other member of Covenant's running trio was senior Michael Alston, who bulled his way for 92 yards and a touchdown on 16 attempts. As a team, the Rams totaled 313 yards on 48 runs.

"Leon gave us the outside, and (Alston) had a great game running up the middle," Oxford said. "It was a team effort."

The championship was the fifth for the school since joining the GICAA last year. The Rams earlier won titles in girls basketball, boys and girls cross country and girls swimming.

"This is fantastic, unbelievable," said Oxford, who's in his second year with the Rams. "The kids fought hard for four quarters. It was a tough game. We were fortunate to come out on top."

Creekside (7-5) stayed in the game with the pass until interceptions by Kameron Tate and Simmons thwarted drives in the final quarter. Quarterback Brendon LeClair completed 14-of-26 passes for 321 yards and two touchdowns but had three interceptions.

Covenant, which blanked the Cougars 29-0 during the regular season, ran out to a 20-0 lead after a quarter as Tate scored on runs of 11, 20 and 9 yards. The Cougars drew within 34-22 when LeClair hit Jordan Watkins with a 50-yard scoring pass with 10:49 left in the game.

But two plays after the Cougars failed on an onside kickoff attempt, Simmons took an inside handoff from his wingback position, cut off left tackle and raced home for an insurance touchdown.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 12:09 AM with the headline "Covenant rolls to GICAA championship ."