The Pulaski County Cougars will face a familiar opponent this week as they travel to Roanoke to face the Cave Spring Knights in an important River Ridge District contest.

Hello again Cougar fans, and welcome back to another week at cougarfootball.net.  Thanks for checking us out again, and for keeping up with one of the best high school football programs in the land!!  We really appreciate the emails we get from time to time from some of the Cougar faithful who live out of town now.  For those who can't make it into town for the games, but love to keep up with the team, we hope to provide you with as much info as we can to keep you updated and in the know.

The Cougars, who are 6-0 overall and 1-0 in district play, missed a close call last week when they mounted a come from behind, last minute rally to defeat the Hidden Valley Titans. The polls are out for this week, and while Pulaski does maintain its #2 ranking in the AP poll, they have dropped out of first place in the VHSL Power Points ratings, and Salem has moved into first place.

WHAT??!! This is not an issue to worry about, allow me to explain. Pulaski County played Hidden Valley last week, and they are now 1-5 on the season. Salem played against Christiansburg last week, who are now 4-2. The Cougars obviously didn’t get as many rider points from beating the 1-5 Titans as the Spartans did from beating the 4-2 Blue Demons. Next weeks ratings, assuming that both PC and Salem win, will see the Spartans still in the lead, since they are facing 5-1 Blacksburg and we are facing 2-4 Cave Spring.

The good news is that Salem will also have to face the same teams that Pulaski County faces, so they will have down weeks in rider points as well. It will all even out in the end. The bottom line is this: Pulaski County needs to be focused on one thing and one thing only, the Cave Spring Knights.

“This team has nothing to lose and everything to gain” said Head Coach Jack Turner. “They know that everyone is expecting them to lose, and that makes them very dangerous. Everyone expected us to handle the Titans last week too, but you see what kind of fight they brought in. We expect no less from Cave Spring or any other team in this district. With their record they know that to make the playoffs, they have to win district games. Beating us would certainly put everyone back in the mix.”

The Knights come into the contest with a 2-4 record. They won their first game against Alleghany 28-20, and then came out to defeat Staunton River 28-6. Things have went downhill for the Knights since then. At Northside they suffered a 20-34 loss, followed by a 7-14 loss at Patrick Henry. Then they traveled to William Byrd and lost a close 13-20 contest. Last week they opened up district play hosting Blacksburg, where they lost 14-28.

The Cougars have, for the most part, owned the series with the Knights. Pulaski County has won 24 games and lost 8. The Cougars have won 15 of the last 17 contests, and 22 of the last 24 meetings, including two memorable overtime wins in 1997 and 1999. The Knights, who only a few years ago were forced to split and form the then new Hidden Valley High School, have been forced to share a talent pool with the Titans that sometimes finds brothers and sisters attending opposite schools. A perfect example of that would be the Reddick family. Big brother J.J. Reddick was a stand out at Cave Spring who of course moved on to play for Duke and is now enjoying life in the NBA. Brother David Reddick also played for Cave Spring and was a fine multi-sport athlete for the Knights. Younger sister Abbey Reddick has attended basketball powerhouse Hidden Valley, where she has been a star performer until an injury sidelined her recently. Many students have found ways to attend the newer and more modern Hidden Valley High School, and the talent pool and student population at Cave Spring has suffered for it.

“Polls, rankings, who beat who during out of district play…it all goes out the window once district play starts” said Turner. “If you want to assure yourself of a spot in the playoffs, you have to win the district. This team has set goals, and to reach them they are going to have to come out focused and ready to fight each and every snap of the ball. We can't let up for a single play. We have that bullseye on our chest again, and everyone is going to be gunning for us. We just have to be focused and ready to do our jobs. If we can do that then we can be successful.”

Pulaski County goes into the game hoping to see all players returned to full speed this week. While some may not have noticed it, several key Cougar players have been nursing light injuries for the past two weeks, and of course the flu bug that has been going around the school system has hit a few folks too. With a little luck, the Cougars will roll onto Dwight Bogle Field this Friday night with a full compliment of weapons at the disposal of Coach Turner.

Game time for Friday night's game is 7:30. Parking usually offers no problems, as you can either park on the stadium side of the road, or across the road at the church parking lot. Bogle Field does offer a fine concessions stand assortment of food, but there are plenty of good eateries in the area if you’d like to get something before you get there. For any Cougar fans who wish to join us, you can find our band of Cougar fans at the Texas Restaurant on Electric Road, down near the Tanglewood Mall end of the road.

Let’s take a good crowd on the road again this week as our Cougars continue their 2008 River Ridge District Schedule. Come on out and make some noise for the guys in the gold helmets. It‘s Cougar Football on a Friday night, I don’t know of any where else I’d rather be!!

GO COUGARS!!!  BEAT THE KNIGHTS!!!