Cougars Fall Hard at Homecoming
Game
Article For three quarters it
looked like the Pulaski County Cougars were going to do what most people
said they couldn't, but as the rain started falling in the fourth quarter
so did the Cougars as they dropped the 2009 Homecoming game to William
Fleming 35-17. The Cougars held their own
with William Fleming, even though their first drive ended with a punt.
After forcing a punt by the Colonels on their first drive, Pulaski marched
the ball down the field on an 11 play, 63 yard drive for the first score
of the game, as Randall Cobbs took the ball in from 7 yards out. The
Jared Bralley PAT put the score at 7-0 in favor of Pulaski County.
Early in the second quarter, the Cougars committed one of two fumbles they
lost on the night, and the Colonels were able to capitalize by taking it
into the end zone on a 3 yard run by #5 Devin Dean. The PAT attempt
was blocked by Austin Cox, leaving the Cougars ahead 7-6. After a
few punts were exchanged, the Colonels were able to drive the ball down
the field again, and Dean again took the ball in for a score, this time on
a 3 yard run. The successful two point attempt by #15 Devin
Richardson put the score at 14-7 William Fleming. The Cougars didn't
back down though, and in 40 seconds drove the ball down the field to set
up a 22 yard field goal by Jared Bralley, leaving the score at 14-10 going
into the halftime break. After an extended halftime
to announce the Homecoming Court, the two teams came back out to slug it
out again. Neither team was able to do much, until the Cougars
finally put together a solid drive to put another score on the board off
of a 1 yard run by Ramell Cobbs. Another Bralley PAT put the Cougars
ahead for the second time in the game 17-14 with just 1:34 left in the
third quarter. It was at about this time that William Fleming started
to take advantage of a Cougar defense that was missing senior lineman
Josh Lambert, who re injured his ankle in the first half. The
Colonels started finding running room, and with 9:06 left in the 4th
quarter, Dean scored from 7 yards out to put the Colonels up 21-17 after
the successful PAT. After holding the Cougars again to a punt, the
Colonels went back on the offensive again, and a quick 64 yard run by Dean
gave William Fleming another score, putting Pulaski County behind 28-17. Pulaski was down, but they
still had some fight left in them. On the kickoff following the
Fleming touchdown, the Cougar return man took the ball up the middle,
bounced off of several tacklers, then reversed his field and headed
towards the Cougar sideline before heading 80+ yards to the end zone.
Unfortunately, the ball either slipped out of his grasp or was somehow
knocked loose just two yards prior to his crossing the goal line.
The ball bounced into the end zone and was pounced on by a Fleming player
for a touchback. Shortly after that, Dean took the ball again and
headed up the middle of the Cougar defense, then broke free for 79
yards this time. Pulaski County was forced to punt again on their
final drive, and the Colonels were moving the ball again when they finally
took a knee to let the clock run out, handing the Cougars a 35-17 loss. This was a great game up
until the fourth quarter. I don't know what happened, but it was
like a light switch was suddenly flipped and the Cougars started to fall
apart. The Cougars missed out on a huge opportunity to set
themselves up going into the last out of district contest next week
against the Amherst Lancers. Now, the Cougars will be facing one of
the top teams in the state, with their self confidence shot and questions
to be answered. The Cougars will also most likely be going into next
week’s contest with Amherst without the services of senior lineman Josh
Lambert, who spent the second half on crutches with ice on his ankle.
He'll be checked more this weekend and at the start of the week, but it
certainly didn't look good after the game. It's gut check time in
Cougarland. The Cougar coaching staff had a fine plan put together
to defeat the Colonels, and the team had two weeks to prepare. For
whatever reason, things fell apart in the fourth quarter, and Pulaski lost
a game they should have won. What this young team is going to have
to do now is put it behind them, and focus on getting through next week
and then going full speed into the district games. If the Cougars
want to make their mark, it's going to have to be at the expense of the
River Ridge District teams, who have done very well during their out of
district games. Christiansburg
now sits at 4-0, with Patrick Henry on their schedule for next week.
Cave Spring is 5-0 after defeating the Alleghany Mountaineers tonight, and
will enjoy an off week this week heading into the district games.
Hidden Valley is 3-1, and after this week's off week they face Northside
next week. Blacksburg started off strong, but fell to 1-3 after
tonight's loss to Patrick Henry and will face Lord Botetourt next week.
And finally, Salem is off to a 4-0 start after coming from behind to beat
Northside tonight, and they face William Fleming next week. Check back later in the
week for more on the Cougars matchup with Amherst. Let's stay behind
the team as they fight through some tough times this season. Sure it
would be great if we could have every season be like last years, but it
just don't happen that way. These kids need our support more now
while they are down than they did last year when they were winning.
Let's give them that support, and see if we can't help them pull out of
this slump they have found themselves in. GO COUGARS!!
Game
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