The Pulaski County Cougars head down Route 220 this Friday to face long time rival Franklin County, and they head that way with a fine 2-0 record and a completely healthy squad of players ready for action.

Hello again Cougar fans, and welcome to week four of the season and another week here at cougarfootball.net. You have to go back to the 2004 season before you find the Cougars with a 2-0 record, and it sure does feel good!

Coach Turner spoke to the team in the locker room after Friday nights win over AAA Patrick Henry, and he didn’t sugar coat anything. “We have a lot of things still left to fix. We’ve done well, but we have to get better. We have to get better because the teams we’re about to play will be better. We need to cut out the penalties. We lost a lot of yards because of the penalties tonight. With all that said though you fought through, you held your ground, and your 2-0. Be proud of that and lets fix our mistakes and get ready for our next game.”

There are a couple of notes of interest from the Patrick Henry game. Senior running back Demetrious Brown came out of a pile limping early in the first quarter Friday night. Once he got to the sidelines, it was obvious that he had at the very least twisted his ankle badly, and it was swollen. He spent the remainder of the first half on the bench with a bag of ice on it. A lot of players would have called it a night, but he didn’t. Brown spent halftime getting taped up, and came out in the second half and showed the type of heart and determination that this team hasn’t showed in some time. The type of heart and grit that it takes to be a leader. He had several nice runs in the second half, but even more importantly he made several key blocks, one of which broke Nubian Peak free around the right side for a long gain, which set up the touchdown by fullback Seth Paris late in the game. That’s the kind of stuff you don’t read about a lot in the newspapers or in the stat columns, but it’s the kind of thing that wins you ball games. Good job Demetrious.

Junior lineman Langston Lewis got his first start on Friday night, and played a fine game on defense. He may not be giving the likes of Peak or Brown a run for their money at the running back spot with his blazing speed, but at 6’ 4” and 300+ pounds he sure can take up a lot of space and fill up a hole or two on that D-line.

So that game is over and now we move on to Franklin County. The 2004 season was also the last time a Cougar Football team started a season off at 3-0. To reach that mark this season, Pulaski County will have to find a way to go through not only the largest school in Southwest Virginia, but one of the largest in the state. Franklin County has over 2200 students to pull players from. A lot of people on other message boards have made a point out of taking the time to post about how “unfair” it is that smaller schools should have to play the bigger schools, and what a disadvantage that puts them at. “Why should a school with 500-800 students have to play a school with 1000-1200 students?” People have pointed the finger at Pulaski for years and said that we have an advantage because we are one of the larger AA schools in the area. With all that complaining about stuff from other people though, Pulaski County has never backed down from playing the bigger schools. Pulaski County….with around 1500 students….will play Franklin County, who has over 2200 students.

In 2000, our last season as a AAA school, we were playing a school with much larger enrollment than our own. We had AA numbers, but if you ask anyone from Culpeper they’ll tell you the Cougars didn’t back down. If you ask the State Champs from that season, the Heritage Hurricanes from Newport News, they’ll tell you that the Cougars never backed down. They beat perennial power house Hampton the week before they came to Dobson Stadium 41-0. On that icy day at the end of November, the Cougars took an early lead on Heritage, and took a 10-7 lead into halftime. The Hurricanes had a big third quarter though, and took a 15-10 lead into the start of the 4^th. The Cougars never gave up though, and with 36 seconds left in the game Josh Calfee scored from 7 yards out after an 11 play, 80 yard drive to pull within five points. The onside kick failed however, and Heritage was able to run out the clock on the Cougars. The Hurricanes went on to dominate Dinwiddie 45-7 the next week and take home the trophy.

Franklin County has always been a huge game for the Cougars. Both schools are and always have been considered “outsiders” by the Roanoke Valley teams and schools. A win over either school has always been a big story in the Roanoke newspapers the next day, a reason to celebrate you might say.

Pulaski County leads the series between the two teams 26 games to 5, but Franklin County won the last match up 26-10 at Dobson Stadium last season. Before that, the Cougars had won 16 in a row, including the dramatic come from behind 44-41 overtime victory in 2005 that saw the return of then injured Kevin Crouse. The Eagles are 1 and 1 so far on the season, with a 19-2 win over E.C. Glass and a 7-19 loss at the hands of William Fleming last week.

Coach Turner cut his coaching teeth at Franklin County with his first assistant coaching job. His wife is from Franklin County. Needless to say, this game is big for him. Coach Landreth had one of the biggest plays of his career at Franklin County. With 3 minutes remaining, the Eagles went for the touchdown on 4th and goal inside the Cougars 5 yard-line. The Eagles QB ran a bootleg and safety Rodney Landreth met him in mid-air, just inches from the goal-line to preserve the victory. I would bet that this game means a lot to him as well.

There are all kinds of reasons why this game is huge for the Cougars. Power points, the playoff ramifications, momentum, getting ready for District play…..they all matter. Unfortunately, the Eagles have that same motivation.

It will be a battle, and it will be a fight. I don’t know if either team would want it any other way. Game time is 7:30 in Franklin County. With this game being farther away than most, I don’t expect to see a huge crowd of Cougar Fans, but I do expect the ones that will make the drive will be the good ones. Those cowbells sure have sounded good for the past two weeks, let's keep that going and see if we can get it even louder in those stands!!

It’s the Cougars vs. the Eagles in week three……let’s get out there and make some noise for Pulaski County baby!!!!

GO COUGARS!!!

BEAT THE EAGLES!!!