CougarDave Corner by CougarDave
Region
IV Semifinal: The
Pulaski County Cougars are in a do-or-die situation this week, as they
travel back up Interstate 81 one more time to take on the Salem Spartans
in round one of the Region 4 playoffs. Hello
again Cougar Fans, and welcome back to another week here at
cougarfootball.net. Last weeks game against the Salem Spartans was a rough
one, to say the least. There were a lot of things that happened during the
course of the game that we could sit here and talk about and I could end
up typing two or three pages about it all…but I wont. I won't because
the bottom line is that no matter what happened last week, THIS IS THE
WEEK THAT MATTERS THE MOST. Win
or your out. It’s as simple as that. You can either come with your best game of the season, and do something that only one other team in the State of Virginia has done in the past several years, and that is to beat the Salem Spartans at Salem Stadium, on what is now known as Willis White Field; or you can just show up and be happy with a 7-4 season, and we'll start putting up the gear on Monday. You
have to believe in yourself. You have to believe in your teammates, you
have to believe in your coaches. You cannot give any official a reason to
reach for his flag. You cannot miss the snap count. You cannot hold. You
must play football the way your coaches have taught you to play. Last
Friday night, you scored first on Salem and then had them held throughout
most of the second quarter. The first half ended in a 7 to 7 tie. On the
Spartans first drive of the second half, there were several flags thrown
against us, and the Spartans took the ball into the end zone. When that
happened, I saw the look in your eyes. You were saying to yourself “here
we go again”. Same old stuff down in Salem as always….blah blah blah. GET
OVER IT!!! Cougar
Football players, even with the flags flying, you still had a chance in
the end to pull it out. If you had recovered the onside kick in the final
minutes of the game, who knows what could have happened. The bottom line
though is that all that is over now, and you can either stand up and play
football, or you can go to Salem Stadium Friday night and be done for the
season. The choice is yours. If
the Pulaski County Cougars go to Salem this week and leave it all on the
field, give it 110%, and do everything they can to win, then no matter
what the score board says at the end of the night I’ll be able to look
them in the eyes and honestly say that I’m proud of them. They have had
an incredible season, and no matter what some people may say I think this
team is special. The way they have come together and bonded since last
season to form what is truly a “team” makes me proud each time I watch
them take the field. But I don’t want it to end just yet. Pulaski
County can beat Salem. All
you have to do is believe. Kickoff
is at 7:30, and I expect with the weather expected to be much better than
last week that this should be a standing room only crowd about that time.
Get there early, be ready to get loud, and be ready to get rowdy. The
PRIDE OF PULASKI COUNTY is going to battle against the Salem Spartans one
more time this season. The winner advances on to the Region 4 Finals, the
other team does not. Let’s
get out and pump the team up for what is sure to be one of the biggest and
loudest games of the season!!! GO
COUGARS!!! BEAT
THE SPARTANS!!!
First off, I had some technical difficulties getting my article and stats to the webmaster last week. Here is what I wrote: Ardent's View November 7, 2007 Well, it's Pulaski County and Salem again. Time to decide the RRD District Championship. We all know: 33 consecutive regular season wins, Willis White Field being dedicated, and so on. I hear that Joel Hicks will take part in the halftime ceremony, helping to honor his long time nemesis. With all due respect to the very deserving Mr. White, while I offer my congratulations to him, and look forward to Joel Hicks Field one day, I'd love to crash the party. I'm talking about the actual game, of course. It is hard to believe, but if we lose, and Christiansburg wins, it is possible that a team with one less win, that we crushed by 20 points in their house, mind you, could squeak into the playoffs ahead of us. We don't have the "luxury" of thinking we can lose this one, and still have our ticket punched. It's not a done deal. Maybe 98%, but that is still not a certainty. I've seen stranger scenarios come to pass. Let's look at this as a playoff game. We win, we are in. I guess that's the way it really should be. GO COUGARS!!! Ardent's View November 14, 2007 Wow. We got in by a single point. Doesn't matter. We're in. We lost last week, but I saw some things that encouraged me. I loved the way Jack went for it on 4th down early on, without hesitation. I loved that play Shay made, scrambling until he look dead in the water on that 4th down play, before heaving a pass into the endzone, into the waiting arms of Demetrious. I loved the fact we did not give up points during, or straight after, the interception. Every game is different. You don't always get a chance for revenge, let alone in the same season. We have that chance. In a bigger game. Yes, it's played at Salem. Again. So what? Didn't seem to bother us in 2001. Or 2000. Or 1994. So make that trip again. My advice for a pregame meal: El Rodeo, or as we did last week, Fuddruckers. You can bet Jack and his staff will have adjustments ready. The coaches and players will be prepared, win or lose, to give it their all. We fans should do the same. Wouldn't you love to bring Salem down to earth? Why depend on Amherst to do it? LET'S GO COUGARS!!!!
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