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A Cougar Touchdown Classic Summary by Jeff Wolfe Click on a link
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Please allow me to begin with some straight forward stats: In two one-quarter ‘half’ competition, without kickoffs: PC 28- FC 6
PC 19- Fauquier
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PC 7 - Varina
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The kicking game was great today. Junior John Hedge is listed at 5-10, 158 pounds, but kicks an oblong spheroid like he’s two inches taller and twenty pounds heavier. He punted only against Varina today, twice, but both had hang times BRD special teams coaches will envy. His distances are too far for Cougar second teams to cover. This season, expect the Cougar second team offense to be trotting off the field on fourth downs in the fourth quarter, and the first team punt unit getting off the bench, looking for their helmets, and scampering onto the gridiron to cover 50 yard missiles from Hedge. Porter showed his seek-and-destroy punt coverage ability today, introducing himself to the returner with a smack heard round Dobson Stadium. It will take speed like Porter’s to get down field on coverages of this kind of punt. Don’t expect to see Hedge punting until after several PAT and Kick Off assignments Hedge overshadowed a 48 yard field goal miss against Franklin Co. with two long field goals against Fauquier, of 47 and 45 yards. “The 48-yarder was from the left hash, which is the most difficult hash to kick from for me. It was close and I was ticked,” Hedge commented. “I still got my confidence up after that. I lined up and drilled the next one, he added. “The other two field goals were from the right hash." PC failed to get off a PAT attempt against Fauquier. Kicking Crew newcomer John Harmon took responsibility. “The snap was low, but it was my problem, I dropped it. Hedge can kick, he’s got the leg. If I get it down, he can hit it.” Harmon held without flaw for all three long field goal attempts. He also performed well in his role as a defensive back. He will spell Calfee at corner this season. Fauquier did well with toss sweep today , but Harmon’s one handed jersey grab was the last Cougar defense on one sweep play. Without his fingers, the running back would have gone 50 more yards for a touchdown. Instead, this effort held Fauquier to 4th-and-7. “I took a bad angle, and I just got lucky, I guess,” Harmon admitted. Senior Lucas Nester made the Cougar defense his own today, with an MVP effort through three halves. “The greatest improvement, has been our Defense,” Head Coach Joel Hicks noted. Lucas lead the improved defensive corps. He had too many defensive stops from his linebacker position today to mention. In addition, he notched a fumble recovery and a punt block, which he returned to the Franklin Co. 6 yard line. “They had two men shift down tight for the punt. I left my normal gap responsibility, and took the outside gap. Nobody touched me,” Nester noted. “I thought I had the TD until someone grabbed the back of my jersey,” he added. Senior Ben ‘The Man' Davidson continues his improvement at offensive tackle. Last week it was reported that he was a junior. This writer apologizes for the mistake. Matt ‘Tater’ Roan couldn’t say enough about Davidson. “He’s tough,” Roan commented. Tater plays TE beside Davidson. “He knocks them down, and I clean them up,” Roan added. Calfee continues to compliment Davidson’s improvement. “He played pretty good, he stepped it up,” Calfee said. Jeremy Porter had a spectacular 68 yard touchdown run against Fauquier. “Coming through the line, it was wide open,” Porter remarked. “I cut left off a great block by Davidson. “Then, I juked left again and cut right.” He turned the corner in the defensive backfield on three defenders, pulling away like Hokie Kevin Jones’ internet recruiting clip. “I gave the last guy a stiff arm, to the face. I worried that it might draw a penalty, but I wasn’t called for it,” Porter confessed. His showmanship was evident with his Walter Payton-like kickout steps on the last 5 yards of the run. If you haven’t seen this move in person, ‘get out of the house more often, Virginia,’ and purchase a season pass for the Cougar’s home Blue Ridge District play. Porter is Cougar ‘Prime Time’. “It was a drive block,” said Davidson. “I was just trying to do my job,” he added, humbly about the 68 yard scoring play. Tater is playing the defensive side of the ball as well this season. Don’t recall Jeff King from Virginia Tech quite yet. Pencil Matt Roan in as all-region on defense, and as a Division-I college prospect. You heard it here first. [King was sighted at tonight’s game. He is projected to red-shirt this year with the Hokies. Tech Head Coach Frank Beamer pulled a ruse on the press corps earlier in summer session. He told them that he had an important recruit tell him that day, that he had decided to ‘go back home’ after the day’s practice. Then after a somber pause, Beamer remarked that the recruit in question was King, who commuted home every day this summer, instead of rooming in the dormitory like some of the other Tech recruits. This writer asked King about ESPN’s Lee Corso’s predictions Thursday night. King responded, “We’ll just have to see.” Corso predicted that Virginia Tech would play in the Rose Bowl against Oregon, noting that Miami would lose in the cold to Tech in Blacksburg on December 1st. “The last time I picked against Virginia Tech, lightning struck my car. God is rooting for the Hokies, and I’m siding with God,” Corso remarked on ESPN’s College Football Preseason Special.] Roan and Gordon Cross ‘sandwiched’ a Varina back on their first drive, bringing about 4th-and-1 at the PC 39 with a loud crunching hit. “It was off-tackle. Gordon filled his hole, and we met him at the same time,” recalled Roan. On 3rd and 2, Cross called his shot. “I told everyone before the play, that if we read our keys, we could stop them in their tracks.” Varina did convert the 4th-and-inches play that followed with a quarterback sneak. However, Varina did not score on the drive. Cross is adjusting well to his new position this year. “I like the move from defensive end to linebacker. I can see alot more of the backfield, and get to the ball quicker now,” he noted. While neither team scored on PC and Varina’s first quarter ‘half’, the Cougar’s were just into the opponent’s territory, and had a sustainable drive going as time expired. Varina would start the second quarter ‘half’ at their own 35. Senior quarterback and corner Alan Wheeling had a good night on both sides of the ball. “I started the pre-season at safety, but moved back to corner during the Graham exhibition game. I feel more at home at corner,” Wheeling added. Apparently. He secured the Cougar’s 7-0 victory and shut out Varina out for good with an interception on a deep pass late in the second half ‘quarter’. “It was a simple take off route and I played it , went up and got the ball. When it’s in the air, it’s mine,” he boasted. Following the INT, assuming his QB role, Wheeling took a knee in the victory formation for time to expire. Wheeling looks to pass this season. “The passing game is going to come around as we resolve a few little mistakes. We are going to be a threat in the passing game,” he asserted. This writer will eat his hat if PC takes a Cave Spring-type passing game emphasis. However, this season on 3rd-and-Oh-Boy-its long forget about a 1980’s-retro pretend-to-pass-and-hand-the-ball- to-a-Hendricks-draw. Expect Air Hicks. Wheeling to Roan, and first down Cougars. Wheeling had a key 18 yard bootleg on PC’s scoring drive against Varina. “We didn’t show the keeper much, but the defense was over-pursuing and Coach called my number,” Alan said. Watch out BRD, when the Cougars go double-wing-balanced, the criss-cross could go either way. Wheeling-Calfee-Cobbs, or Wheeling-Cobbs-Calfee. Greg Cobbs had a key 3rd-down conversion against Fauquier. “Travis Williams make a good block and I cut off that and just ran,” Cobbs said of his 22 yard run. Pulaski County opens their regular season play against Tazewell this Friday night.
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