The Pulaski County Cougar football team won a huge non district contest Friday night, defeating the Jefferson Forest Cavaliers 10-7 on the road in a defensive thriller.

“What a battle” said Head Coach Jack Turner. “This game reminded me of some of the games from back when I played. It was a real test out there tonight, but our kids stood up to the challenge. I’m proud of the way we played and the things we were able to do against a very talented team.”

The end of the first quarter found the two teams locked in a scoreless tie. Both teams had moved the ball a little, but neither had been able to find any real consistency or breaks in the other teams defense.

The Cougars finally managed to get on the scoreboard late in the second quarter, when fullback Seth Parris took the ball over the goal line from 2 yards out with 1:04 left in the half. After a successful PAT by Matt Songer, the Cougars headed to the locker room up by a score of 7-0.

“We knew they were good, but they also made some mistakes that we should have taken advantage of” said Turner. “They had three fumbles in the first half, we recovered one. Zane Quesenberry also intercepted a pass for us. We only managed to get seven points out of all that. We only had 4 first downs in the first half, but they only had 2. That shows you what kind of fight it was.”

The second half saw the Cavaliers come out with a new plan, and they took the ball to the air. The Cavs marched the ball down the field, and with 8:53 left in the third quarter halfback Desmond Goode took the ball in from three yards out, tying the game after the PAT was good. Pulaski responded by putting together a drive of their own, but a Songer field goal attempt was blocked. Jefferson Forest picked up the ball and returned it to around midfield, giving them excellent field position.

While the Cougar defense had played well to this point, this was where they really kicked things into overdrive. On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Cavalier offense went for it on fourth and short. Enter “The Gold Swarm”. The Cavs were stopped cold, and the Cougar offense took over on downs.

Pulaski drove the ball down the field slowly from that point, and with 2:46 left in the game, kicker Matt Songer put the ball through the uprights from 23 yards out to put the Cougars in the lead, 10-7. The game was still in question, and Jefferson Forest was going to get the ball back with time left on the clock.

After a well placed, deep kickoff, the Cavs set up a return that gave them very good field position. Once again it was up to the Cougar defense to step things up. On the first play, Jefferson Forest moved the ball for a first down, coming up to near midfield. The next play, the Cavs gains enough to move the chains about two yards. The guys in the gold helmets had seen enough.

On second down, senior Brandon Hazzard broke through the Cavalier offensive line and crushed quarterback Hunter Hannell for a sack. On third down, the offensive line accounted for Hazzard, but they forgot about senior Jared Cole, who took his own shot at Hannell and pounded him to the turf. After two straight sacks, the Cavalier line set up to account for every lineman, but they forgot about linebackers, and on fourth down junior Tahrick Peak found his way through the line and into the backfield to end the series with a sack of his own.

“We had to buckle down in the fourth” said Peak. “We came together and played as a team. The coaches really had us ready for this game, and we wanted it. It’s been a while, but this is starting to feel like Cougar Football again!!”

The game wasn’t over with the defensive stand, however, as there was still a little over two minutes left on the clock, and Jefferson Forest still had two timeout remaining. On first down, the Cougars only managed to gain a yard. After a Cavs timeout, the Cougars added three more yards to their total. After the final Cavalier timeout, it was third and six and there was a little over a minute left on the clock. Junior quarterback Luke Watson calmly stepped up, and did what leaders do…..he got the job done. Watson took the ball towards the Cougar side of the field, pulled two defenders past the first down marker, and instead of going out of bounds he kept his legs moving and gained four more yards.

Pulaski County took a knee two times to end the game, moving their record to 4-0 on the season.

“We did pretty good, but this wasn’t our best game” said senior Brandon Hazzard. “We got the job done tonight, but we have to keep getting better. We took our defense to the next level tonight. We played “Gold Swarm” defense the way it was meant to be played. It was good, but we can do better.”

Coach Turner was pleased with his teams effort tonight, but was also quick to point out that point. “We played a really good team tonight, and we got a win. That’s great, but we cant afford to celebrate for too long. We need to spend the next two weeks healing up some bumps and bruises, and getting ready for Lord Botetourt and our district schedule. We had several kids that were banged up at the start of tonight’s game. Nubian Peak was only at about 80%. Josh Lambert and Ralph Miller were playing banged up. It’s a good time to have a bye week.”

Turner was also quick to point out how pleased he was with the support his team got at this weeks contest. “My gosh, we came out of the locker room and there were more Cougar fans there than there were Cavalier fans. The band made the trip, the cheerleaders, and the fans. They were all just great. The coaches and the kids just cant tell you how great it was to come out and see that.”

Tahrick Peak also commented on the fan support at the game. “We love our fans. We love the way they get loud for us, we love the way the band plays 2001, and we love our Cougar Crazies. It’s just really great to know they are there to support us.”

Pulaski County takes a week off this coming week, but goes back into action the following week as they travel to Lord Botetourt.