By PAOLO GORME
News Sports Writer
This past Friday the Cougars traveled to Prattville to face the Autauga Academy Generals. The two teams were both undefeated coming into the game. They were the number one and two ranked teams in class AA. The last time the two teams went head to head was in the AA state championship game last season in which the Generals came out on top winning the championship by a touchdown.
Friday, the Cougars suffered their first loss of the season 42-20. The offense couldn’t produce any points until the end of the second quarter.
The Generals’ offense had 423 yards of total offense with 77 plays. The Cougars had only 263 yards of total offense and 53 plays on offense with 2 fumbles lost.
Jabe Dawe produced 145 yards passing, Louie Turner added 90 yards on the ground with 2 touchdowns, and Fred Flavors had 52 yards through the air.
“We didn’t play our kind of football tonight, and give them credit because they have a good team. We didn’t play football that we’re capable of playing. We just have to take a look at lot of things and see what we have to do to get better,” were Coach Fountain’s takeaways from the game.
Autauga Academy’s quarterback Tripp Carr scored the first touchdown by running it in from 8 yards out at the 7:02 mark of the first quarter giving the Generals the early lead. The Cougars looked to answer the touchdown but Pat McGhee fumbled the ball at the Cougar 20-yard line that set up a Generals passing touchdown from Carr to James Woods the ensuing play. The score was 13 to nothing with 4:40 left in the first quarter. Jordan Epkins tallied on to the score for the Generals in the 5-minute mark of the second quarter scoring from 6 yards out. They attempted a 2-point conversion that was successful that made the lead 21-0. With 54 seconds left in the first half, Kendrick Rogers scored a 30-yard passing touchdown for the Generals and the scoring advantage grew to 28-0. After the ensuing kickoff, the Cougars took over on offense at the 54-yard line. Jabe Dawe and Neikel Robinson connected on a 44-yard pass setting up a Turner 1-yard touchdown run as time expired to put the Cougars on the board 28-6 to end the half.
Coming out of the locker rooms, the Generals picked up where they left off with Carr scoring from 36 yards out with his legs that made it 35-6. Louie Turner answered this touchdown with a 58-yard rushing touchdown of his own. The 2-point conversion was no good making the score 35-12.
In the last 3 minutes of the fourth quarter, the Cougars turned it over again and Autauga capitalized on it with DJ Gardner scoring from 2 yards out that added to the score 42-12.
The Cougars did not fold however. Dawe completed passes to MJ Jones one of which was a 22-yard reception to move the chains towards midfield. Ultimately, Dawe and Flavors connected on a 46-yard receiving touchdown in which Flavors fought his way to the end zone, stiff arming multiple defenders and making them miss. Robinson scored the 2-point conversion and ended the game at 42-20.
The Cougars will be on the road again this Friday taking on Bessemer Academy. Come out and support them as they close out the regular season. Go Cougars!