After a fine showing at Northside last week, the Cougars enjoy a rare early week off as they prepare for game two against long time foe Patrick Henry and the remainder of their out of district schedule.

Hello again Cougar Fans, and welcome to week two of the season for Pulaski County, and another week here at cougarfootball.net. My my my….how good it feels!!

Let’s not misunderstand each other here, this was not a pretty game at times….but we won. We missed too many blocks on offense…but we won. We missed too many tackles when we had them trapped in the backfield….but we won. We had a running back fumble the ball late in the game….but we won. We had a punt blocked, we missed tackles in the open field, and we missed a chance to put the nail in the coffin up 21-7 late in the game……but by golly we won.

For the first time in a long time, the Pulaski County Cougars were able to come out with a win in a close game. I like it, and I cant wait to see more of it.

The Cougars have some things they need to improve on, but there was a spark out on that field Friday night that I haven’t seen in a while. This team WANTS to win. As one of the fans that has been there through the good times and the bad, I’m excited about things. Of course I’m always excited, but hey…..it’s good to see the team get that first win under their belts.

With the Cougars enjoying their early season off week this week, I thought it might be a good chance to take a look around at how the other teams in the district look and have done to this point.

Hidden Valley, our first district opponent of the season, opens this week against William Byrd. The Titans were the fortunate recipients of two big name transfers this off season, as former Cave Spring and former North Cross players Castro (QB) and Aiken (receiver) add to an already experienced and dangerous offensive team. Defensively they should also be solid, with a good group of returning players manning the linebackers and secondary spots.

Week two of the district schedule will find the Cougars hosting Cave Spring. The Knights are still recovering from a series of very unfortunate events, mainly a large majority of their talent seeming to want to go to neighboring and much newer Hidden Valley. Cave Spring opened this past week against Alleghany, and suffered an opening week loss. The Knights may be down, but it would be unwise for any team to count them out.

Blacksburg takes up the week three district spot for the Cougars. The Bruins may be the team that the rest of the district has the highest expectations for in the pre-season. The Bruins finished the season last year with a fine 7-3 mark, but more importantly they did that with a group of mostly underclassmen. Blacksburg returns quarterback Trey Gresh, who last year threw the ball for 110 yards per game and 11 touchdowns, as well as senior standout Tyler Holmes and a nice group of other receivers and running backs. If the Bruins have things together as expected, they could make a good run at things in 2007.

Week four of the district season finds the Cougars traveling to Christiansburg to face the Blue Demons. Christiansburg was a team that the Cougar dominated early on in the series between the two, but the Blue Demons have managed to turn the tables in the last two seasons, winning big. Christiansburg returns a good portion of its 2006 team as well, and could easily make it three wins in a row against the Cougars if we don’t focus. Expect a battle.

Finally, the last regular season game for Pulaski County in 2007 will once again be Salem High School. All the fuss, all the talk, and all of the other rivalry stuff that has ever been said about a big rivalry game applies here. The bottom line is that until someone knocks them off, the Salem High School Spartans football team is the top dog in the River Ridge District. For any team in the district to make a name for themselves, they will have to beat Salem. The Spartans will, as usual, reload and take on all comers this season. Anything less of would be a surprise to me, the Pulaski County Cougars, and the entire district and state.

So there you have it. The Cougars also face Patrick Henry, Franklin County, Jefferson Forest, and Lord Botetourt in weeks three through six of the season. Two AAA opponents who have always been tough, and two teams that have the talent and ability to beat any team on any night. Don’t get me wrong here, we need to win those games. The Cougars need to get back in the habit of winning, and they need to want it. But if the Cougars want to be guaranteed a spot in the 2007 playoff bracket, about the only way to do that is to win the River Ridge District Title. It’s been since 2001 since Pulaski County won a district title, and since we beat Marion 31-20 on November 30, 2001. We’ve only had two playoff games since then. We lost a State Title on one, and we lost in round one of the region playoffs to Salem in the other. Nearly six years ago…..that’s a long time.

The good news is that we don’t have to worry about all of that right now. Right now all Pulaski County should be focused on is Patrick Henry, and correcting the mistakes that were made in game one. If the Cougars can fix those mistakes, remain focused, and continue to get better each week, this should be a very exciting week for Cougar Football and its fans. Either way, we’ll be here, and we look forward to the ride with you all. Let’s get out and make some noise this season, because THE COUGARS ARE UNDEFEATED BABY!!!

GO COUGARS!!!