Our players wanted to come out and prove that last week’s loss against the Group AAA Patrick Henry Patriots was truly a fluke, and to come back to reality, a reality which the Cougars reign supreme. Anticipation was extremely high, not just from our team, but our fans, our county, and basically everyone in the state that knows what Cougar Football means and how it should be played.

          Both sides of Victory Stadium were at capacity, even due to the fact of the rearranged seating at the stadium due to last spring’s devastating floods that hit this region. Cougar fans were in full form, we had a great crowd in attendance; especially with gasoline prices being so expensive. Obviously, Cougar Football means a lot to us and I hope that the program acknowledges that and hopefully they will turn things around before we start district play on October 14^th against a much improved Hidden Valley team that humiliated us at last year’s Homecoming.

Let’s get back to the game—from the opening kickoff, things didn’t look very appealing for the Cougars. Our opening kickoff went out of bounds at the 3, but a illegal procedure penalty gave the Colonels great field advantage as they started their first possession at their 35. But that great field advantage didn’t help the Colonels as they punted three and out.  Our opening possession was absolutely horrible, as we demonstrated that we couldn’t move the ball. Most of the 1^st quarter, both teams played at a stalemate; as neither team could figure the other one out.

As the whistle blew to start the 2^nd quarter, things really started to deteriorate for us. We allowed 17 points due to the fact of countless missed opportunities to sack and tackle anyone with the ball. Our defense played despicable, they truly looked like a Pop Warner team against those speedy, more athletic Colonels. The Cougar offense wasn’t much better, but there was some positive news to speak about, we witnessed the return of our star running back Kevin Crouse. He played selectively on offense as he’s healing that ankle injury he sustained three weeks ago against a hard-hitting Liberty team in our Touchdown Classic. As the second quarter came to a close, the Cougars did look like that they may come our after halftime and try to give the fans what they want; a come from behind victory, exactly like last year’s astonishing victory.

It seemed as if new life was breathed into the Cougars as we played with more intensity, but things just couldn’t capitalize for us. We made way too many mistakes on both sides of the ball, and basically, we just couldn’t move the ball.

We had several chances during those twelve minutes to perhaps think of a comeback, but those missed opportunities were too numerous and desperately hurt us in the long run. Both teams played extremely well during the third quarter, unfortunately the Colonels had a much better game plan.

The fourth quarter was one of those quarters that every football player, coach, and fan alike would want to take back. The Colonels drove the football almost on consecutive possessions to the hole and put another 14 points on the scoreboard. The blame for those 14 points could be solely placed upon our linebackers and our secondary; they allowed too much room for error as the Colonels played with poise, heart, and ease as they trampled the visiting Cougars 31 to 0.

There are two numbers that we don’t want to acknowledge now as a school, a team, or as the Cougar Football nation; those numbers are 0 and 2, which is currently our record this year for the time being. We haven’t started a season 0 and 2 since 2002, the last season of Coach Joel Hicks legendary tenure here at Pulaski County High School. We need to go back to our roots and work on the fundamentals of football, which we are presently lacking.

I bet that we missed as many tackles as we allowed points during tonight’s game, we didn’t play with heart or even have a glimpse of intensity. Coach Turner and the rest of the staff need to get things rolling again before its too late, one more loss may seal our teams fate before we even get started. I have never seen a Cougar football team that didn’t play with raw intensity and an abundance of heart; it hurts me so much to say that this team broke that tradition and are likely to break many more if they don’t get back to our legendary form as soon as possible.

Our schedule is really unforgiving, we can’t expect to lose these out of district games and still go to the playoffs; we desperately need to rebound this Friday night against the Group AAA Franklin County Eagles to boost morale not just for the team, but to our school, our community, and our fans. Please come out and make some noise for our Cougars and let’s hope and pray that we can get out of this slump before October 14^th.

GO COUGARS!

Full Story
by Mike Alley

BOX SCORE

Game Pictures by CougarDave