By Stephen Henderson
The Patrick County High School Cougar football team hosted the Staunton River Golden Eagles Friday night in a benefit game.
The Golden Eagles, with the help of their talented runner Tony Chinchilla, put four touchdowns on the scoreboard before the first quarter even ended, shutting out the Cougars 27-0 in the first.
It took some time for the Cougar defense to adjust to the complicated offense tossed at them by Staunton River. The pitch-out, counter and powerful run down the middle kept PC on the move, but not quite fast enough to stop Chinchilla, who amassed over 2,500 yards last season as a sophomore.
The final TD in the first half for the Eagles came after Seth Scott intercepted an Eagle pass, ran for about seven yards and fumbled the ball. Staunton River picked up the loose ball and ran it in for the score with 10:34 left in the half to lead 34-0 at the end of the half.
The Cougars returned to the field with rain pouring down in the second half. It appeared that several offensive and defensive adjustments were made during the intermission.
Cougar quarterback Logan Hutchens found an opening off tackle to gallop 65 yards down field for the first Cougar score. A bungled PAT hold forced Matt Amos to scramble the two yards for the two-point conversion. The score was 42-8 with 6:32 left in the third quarter.
On a series of downs capped by Colt Martin’s 20 yard run into Staunton River territory, the Cougars ground down the field with Tyvin Martin bulling ahead until he drove to the five yard line; he then drove the ball in from the one yard line to score the second PC touchdown with 8:54 left in the game. Ethan Harkey kicked the PAT.
The final score was 45-15.
Coach Derrick Jones emphasized some positives to the team during his speech on the field after the game. “I think that we saw some positives after half,” he said. “We made some adjustments and got some movement of the ball. We got our triple option off better and started running harder,” Jones said. “I thought we played a lot harder in the second half,” he said.
“We actually got our quarterback protected some in the second half—that was a big thing, especially handling the blitzes that Staunton River threw at us,” he said.
Defensively, Jones was happy to see some guys stepping up. “I thought they played a lot more physical than they had previously—in the second quarter as well as the second half,” Jones said. “They didn’t go through us like hot butter,” he said.
According to Jones, the Cougars are much better on defense than they were at this point last year. “I am happy with that,” he said.
This week the Cougars will face Halifax. “They have a big front line and some great athleticism,” Jones said.
Jones wants to work on discipline to move the ball. “Defensively, we have pretty much held our own except for the ‘big’ play that the Comets broke on us several times last year. Athleticism is key, and we have that athleticism this year,” he added.
“The guys were better today than we were last week (the scrimmages with Eastern Montgomery and Grayson County). We did step up in competition (this week), but I see a lot of positives resulting from our playing Staunton River,” he said.
The Cougars host the Halifax Comets this Friday starting at 7 p.m.
