Varsity Football Cougars Lose To Trinity

The Piedmont Academy football team fell for the second consecutive week as the Cougars dropped a 31-10 homecoming game to defending state champion Trinity last Friday.

Trinity built a 17-0 halftime lead to set the tone for the contest which dropped Piedmont to 4-2 overall.

“Trinity was simply a little more physical than we were,” said Cougar coach Danny Camp. “They are the defending state champion and I believe they have a chance to win it again. We made some mistakes in the first half, but played better in the second.”

Offensively, it was a productive night for Piedmont as the Cougars’ rushing attack was able to grind out 298 yards.

“Normally, when you rush for almost 300 yards it means you have a good chance to win,” Camp said. “We would have liked to have played them closer than what we did. We gave up some big plays which is something that has hurt us the last two games. We didn’t do that in our first four.”

Lance Richardson paced the Piedmont ground attack with 131 yards on 18 carries. J.J. Tweedell added 82 yards on 10 rushes and Patrick Simoes finished with 58 yards on three carries.

Tweedell scored the lone touchdown of the night for the Cougars on a 75-yard run while Chris Brunton added a 30-yard field goal.
{{more}}
Defensively, Camp’s team was led by Whit Morgan who had seven solo tackles (eight total). Brunton and Zac Hauther finished with five tackles while Cristopher Jackson added 4.5.

While disappointed with last week’s loss, Camp said it will be important for his players to realize the importance of the next three games which are all Region 4-AA contests.

“We used the scrimmages during the summer to prepare for the first six non-region games,” the coach said. “We then used the first games of the regular season to prepare us for region.”

Piedmont will host Pinecrest this Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Paladians enter the game 1-4 overall and are coming off an open date. Pinecrest has lost to Gatewood, Valwood, Mt. Pisgah and Fellowship Christian in 2005. Its lone win was a 21-6 game against Westminster Christian.

The Cougars defeated the Paladians, who are in their second year of varsity play, 20-9 last season.

“We are not taking them lightly,” Camp said. “We need to play with the same intensity of we were playing Trinity or Flint River.”

Camp said his team needs to improve on its pass protection so opponents cannot simply concentrate on stopping Piedmont’s running game.

“One area we did improve on last week was special teams,” the coach said. “We did do a better job in that area.”