Cougars Claw Eagles 44-41 (OT)
by Mike Alley 

Coming into tonight’s game in Cy Dillon Stadium in Rocky Mount, the Pulaski County Cougars had a chip placed on their shoulder; a chip placed there by their fans, coaches, and themselves. Our community has never wanted the Cougars to win a game as much as they wanted to win against Franklin County. We came into tonight’s game as huge underdogs; it seemed to many fans that our Cougars might be destined to be defeated once again, this time by the AAA Eagles. Unbelievably, our Cougars rose for the occasion and pulled off a huge victory in overtime!

This game was truly one to remember; from the opening whistle to the thrilling conclusion in overtime, big plays were abundant for both teams and the better team eventually won. Our team played unbelievably on both sides of the ball when it counted; they gave every ounce of strength, heart, and their soul to ensure that they wouldn’t leave Rocky Mount without a win. This win is so much more than that, this win was our first of the season, but this win gave our community hope and solidified the fact that the Cougars are back in business!

The first half was truly a track meet, with Franklin County having more sprinters. The Eagles played fantastic on every side of the ball, they capitalized on every chance to make a big play with their great passing game and decent ground attack as they went into halftime leading by a touchdown, 34 to 27. The Cougars looked like they couldn’t stop the Eagles, but essentially the Eagles’ offense only consisted of big plays. Those big plays did hurt us, but in the long run; we managed to stay close.

There were several reasons for the Eagles’ lead in the first half; their special teams and offense played with a lot of intensity and they took advantage of the fact that they had more team speed as they burnt our secondary for each of five touchdowns they scored in the first twenty-four minutes. Our Cougars didn’t disappoint on offense either; our extremely talented running game was playing better than ever, led by our star tailback Kevin Crouse running for close to 200 yards in the first half.

As the Cougars came back on the field for the second half, you felt that something special was going to occur; the Cougars looked hungry and wanted to put those two losses behind them for good. You could sense that Coach Turner had pumped up our boys, and in the second half, our Cougar Crazies finally woke up and made some noise for the first time this year.

The third quarter was a deadlock; neither team could get into the end zone. Both defenses were playing much better, especially the Cougar defense; our talented core of linebackers, linemen, and secondary started to play as a whole and didn’t make the mistakes that they made during the first half. Somehow, Franklin County finally scored on an Antonio Terry run with 4:05 to play in the third quarter, and that would be the last point scored by the Eagles. They led 44 to 27 after three periods, many of the Cougar faithful were getting frustrated but we continued to cheer and hope for a comeback, a comeback worthy of the record books.

As the whistle blew to start the pivotal fourth quarter, the intensity level for the Cougars seemed to be at an all-time high. Our fans were extremely loud, and down on the field, the Cougars seemed to have a new sense of energy; it was like having a key to open a door and trying to stick the key in, but we needed to just turn the key a little harder.  The Cougars showed up big time in this quarter, our defense deflated the Franklin County offense with four consecutive stops, and the momentum began to shift, and you could feel it on the sidelines.

We knew that the Eagles’ defense had cracks in it was getting ready to break, and the Cougars came crashing through. We pounded the pigskin down their throats as we drove down the field 66 yards. Benji Poindexter zipped 44 yards to paydirt, and Luis Piscura cut the deficit to seven with 5:26 to play. Could the defense come up with another stop? Oh yes, did it ever as they punted on fourth and sixteen.

Pulaski County took over on its own 47 on that last possession of regulation, as our talented stable of running backs drove the ball down the field. We took a lot of time off of the clock, as we obliterated the Eagle D as Kevin Crouse scored inside the right pylon on a 14-yard scamper with fifty-three seconds left to play. Piscura sealed our comeback with the extra point conversion and sent us into overtime.

Franklin won the coin toss, and the Eagles stayed with their passing game. The first two were incomplete and Willis was really feeling a lot of pressure on third down. On third down he started to scramble, was hit from the side by Brent Osborne, the ball popped free, and David Jeter recovered for Pulaski County.

The Cougars took over on the 10-yard line and Coach Turner didn’t want to wait; he wanted to be safe and go for the win on first down. He sent in our special teams led by Luis Piscura, and Luis sent the pigskin flying through the uprights for the game-winning 27-yard field goal.

We did what seemed like was impossible, and this win was a huge win for our community and a huge confidence booster for our team and gave them something to build upon for the rest of the season. I know that this game wasn’t a fluke, our team is back and is ready to win anytime, anywhere, and against any team.

Cougar Football is back; our team is playing with a new sense of energy that is full of heart and intensity that will carry them a long way. Our Cougars deserve our praise; they deserved to win in every sense of the word. We have much to look forward to for the rest of the season; hopefully we can finish out our grueling out of district schedule with two more wins and get ready for the best district in the state.

Please come out and support our Cougars as they return to Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium on Friday night to play the highly talented Jefferson Forest Cavaliers of the Seminole District!

GO COUGARS!

These were the words of Junior running back Kevin Crouse after he came off of the field following the Cougars come from behind, 44-41 overtime win over the Franklin County Eagles on Friday night. Crouse just stood there.....hands and legs visibly shaking from exhaustion after his first start of the season, jersey soaked with sweat, barely able to raise his arms to shake hands.....and his words just couldn’t have summed it up any better.

Kevin wasn’t the only Cougar who pushed it to the limits Friday night though. Linebacker #45 Cab Cabaniss played the entire game with a painful stinger he got early in the game, junior #3 Benji Poindexter played very well both ways all night, and senior place-kicker #15 Luis Piscura showed extreme calm under pressure to kick the game winning field goal in overtime. There was more than that though. Pulaski County was put into a position that it needed to put a couple of freshmen into the action near the end of the game, and they all performed well under fire. Freshman running back #22 Nubian Peak carried the ball 3 times for 16 yards, one of those rushes was no gain. The other two were for 7 yards and 9 yards respectively, each gaining the Cougars a critical first down. Sophomore quarterback #10 Shay Dunnigan came into the game after the first series to give senior #9 Austin Twine some time to breath. Dunnigan ended up staying in, and while he didn’t have any completions (0-5 passing) he also didn’t throw any "bad" passes for interceptions. There was also a bad snap near the Eagle 20 yard line on the drive to tie the game and send it into overtime, and rather than making a big mistake and turning the ball over, Shay calmly picked the ball up and ran it ahead for three yards. I don’t know about the rest of you all, but I'll take that any day!!

And lets take a look at what happened to the defense. In the first half, the Cougar defense was just about as effective as the Eagles. At times this half looked more like a track meet than a football game. You know its getting crazy when the referee's start talking about how they may need salt tablets and an I.V. at halftime from running up and down the field so much. But they never gave up. This was one of those situations where Pulaski was down and could have given up, but instead they stepped up. The Cougars were outscored 34-27 in the first half. That scoring ended in the third quarter, with the Eagles scoring the quarters only TD to go up 41-27. At this point, Head Coach Jack Turner ask his defense to reach down deep, and to show the fight that he knew they had in them. In response, the Cougar Defense shut down the Eagles in the fourth quarter, while the offense calmly went about marching down the field. First, Poindexter scored on a 44 yard run that saw the junior running back physically drag the Eagle defender the last few yards into the end zone to finish off a 66 yard drive. Then after another big defensive stop, the Cougars moved the ball down the field again, to have Crouse break a 14 yard run to cap off a 53 yard drive. Piscura hit the PAT to tie the game with 53 seconds left in regulation. The Eagles got a quick first down, but second down an exhausted Crouse intercepted the DJ Willis pass, and nearly broke it free for a TD, to send the game into overtime. Once we hit overtime, the defense made another big stand and this time (I believe) it was sophomore reserve linebacker #34 David Jeter who came up with a big fumble recovery after an Eagle fumble. Coach Turner could have decided to try to score the TD, but instead he put his faith in his senior place kicker Piscura and junior holder #19 Glendon Jones. The kick team calmly came out and kicked a 27 yard field goal to win the game in overtime for the Cougars in what will most surely be put into the history books as one of Pulaski Counties "greatest games".

Later in the locker room, there were a lot of tired but very happy young men with gold pants and gold helmets. For the fans that made that long drive to Rocky Mount on Friday night, this game gave us another Cougar Football memory that I know I will remember forever. I’m sure others feel the same way. Our kids could have easily given up, but they didn’t. They stayed at it and they kept fighting. They did their jobs and they pushed themselves like we haven’t seen all season. Friday night in Franklin County, we got a chance to see COUGAR FOOTBALL and COUGAR PRIDE!!! Now lets see if Pulaski can use that momentum and the lessons learned as they spend this week getting ready for week 4 opponent Jefferson Forest. Be sure to check back later in the week for the pre-game write up.

Chin up Cougar fans…….“COUGAR PRIDE” is still alive and well, and the Cougars will be back in Dobson Stadium this coming Friday night!!