Cougars Lose in First Round of Playoffs

A season that began with promise ended on a disappointing note for the Piedmont Academy football team last Friday.

The Cougars fell to Tiftarea 42-16 in a first-round GISA AA state contest in Chula. Piedmont finishes the 2003 season at 6-5 overall.

“Injuries hurt us again,” Cougar head coach Charlie Lane said. “Jeremy [Reese] had problems with his shoulder again and Frank Christian had a leg injury. It was also a hot night and that took its toll. You wouldn’t think about it being hot in November, but it was.
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“We just didn’t have enough depth to keep up late.”

Trailing just 18-16 at halftime, Piedmont was outscored 24-0 in the second half.

“Tiftarea is a good team,” Lane said. “They did what they had to do in order to win.”

Daniel Beckham scored both touchdowns for the Cougars. Going into the contest, Lane was concerned about Tiftarea’s passing attack.

“We did a pretty good job for the most part on pass defense,” the coach said. “However, we gave up some big plays that hurt us. Big plays were a key of three of their touchdowns. It’s tough to overcome that.”

The first half saw the two schools go back and forth, but the host Panthers took control in the third and fourth quarters.

“We had chances in the second half,” Lane said. “We moved inside the 20 a few times but couldn’t complete drives.”

Lane admits the second half of the 2003 season did not go the way he, his players and coaches would have liked.

Piedmont raced out to a 5-1 start with the lone loss coming at the hands of a AAA school. In their final five games, however, the Cougars were 1-4 including last Friday’s playoff loss.

“It’s disappointing when you consider how good this team was early in the season,” Lane said.
“We were on a roll before we had people getting hurt. In the end, we didn’t have much to show for the season. Early in the year we felt we had a team that could really go somewhere.”

Lane said despite the loss of several key seniors to graduation, the Piedmont program should continue to be competitive next fall.

“In the end, things didn’t go as we had hoped this year,” Lane said. “It’s not fair, but life’s not fair. We try to teach the players about life as well as football and this year was a learning experience.”

NOTE: The Piedmont Academy varsity football banquet is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. at the school.