Twenty-fourth-year Shelby Academy head coach Dewayne Kervin has his team back in the AISA Class A championship game after the Raiders downed Lowndes Academy Friday night, 27-20.

&uot;That was my goal at the start of the year,&uot; Kervin said of returning to the championship game.

Kervin’s Raiders won the state championship in 1998 while finishing as the runner-up in 1997 and 2003.

Shelby Academy opened up the scoring early as senior Marcus Jones sprinted 44 yards for the Raiders first score. Jones, who has 11 touchdowns on the year, led all Raider rushers with 62 yards on 11 carries.

Kervin said Jones and the rest of the seniors have displayed an enormous amount of leadership, leading his team back to the title game.

&uot;I think we have good leadership all around,&uot; Kervin said.

Junior quarterback Jake Ingram also got into the scoring action, rushing for 51 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns.

After Ingram’s second touchdown put the Raiders up 27-6, Lowndes scored twice and pulled the game to within a touchdown.

Lowndes then drove twice inside the Shelby Academy 20-yard line but the drives stalled when juniors Cody Green and Barry Harrison each intercepted a pass, thus ending Lowndes’ hopes of playing in the championship game. Harrison led all Shelby Academy defenders with eight tackles and two interceptions.

&uot;I was a little disappointed that we bogged down in the second half,&uot; Kervin said.

Shelby Academy must now take on the same Southern team who downed the Raiders in the last game of the regular season, 20-7.

&uot;(Southern) is just really hard to score on,&uot; Kervin said.

The Raiders got away from their signature rushing game last time against Southern and used more of a passing attack, something Kervin knows his team must work on.

&uot;We tried to open the field up on (Southern) and it didn’t work,&uot; Kervin said. &uot;We have to come back and prove we can run the ball.