Piedmont Rolls to 55-26 Victory
For the second consecutive game, the Piedmont Academy football team benefited from plenty of offensive firepower.
The Cougars cruised to a 55-26 win against Central Fellowship last Friday in the 2006 home opener for Piedmont. Coach Danny Camp’s team improved to 1-1 with the victory at Cougar Field.
Piedmont compiled 417 yards of total offense and ran two kickoffs for scores. Two players rushed for more than 100 yards and the Cougars also got approximately 70 yards through the air.
“It’s nice to get that first win on the board,” Camp said. “We set the tone early last Friday by returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. The blocking was tremendous on the play. We really worked on special teams during the offseason and it paid off last week.”
Sophomore Justin Atkins returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and rushed for two more. Atkins finished with 168 yards on 11 carries as the Piedmont offense was able to run the football almost at will against Central. His kickoff returns were for 95 and 90 yards.
Lance Richardson added 123 yards on 13 attempts with a score while Christopher Hornibrook finished with 39 yards on six carries, two of which were for scores.
Quarterback Zac Hauther made some timely pass completions going 3-for-4 for 68 yards through the air. All three completions came on third down plays to Richardson (two catches for 56 yards) and Whit Morgan (one catch for 12 yards).
Once again the Piedmont offensive line was praised for its performance last Friday. Helping make all the offensive numbers possible were center Ben Cleary, guards Jake Landress and Charlie Needham, tackles Randy Reagin and Andrew Stevenson and tight ends Morgan and Joey Schroeder.
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Camp did have concerns about his team continuing to commit turnovers.
“We had five fumbles and lost four of them,” the coach said. “We can’t continue to turn the football over like we have been the first two games. We have to get better at holding onto the football.”
The Cougars, who led 29-13 at halftime, also had one breakdown on special teams as Central Fellowship returned a kickoff for a score.
Defensively, Piedmont played well overall as Central threw the football more than most opponents. Camp said his defense provided solid coverage for most of the contest.
“We are playing well defensively and aren’t missing too many tackles,” said the coach. “We are moving the football on offense and we improved our passing game. We do have to cut down on the turnovers, but hopefully that will happen the more we play.”
Defensively against Central Fellowship, D.J. Allen had nine tackles including three for a loss as well as a fumble recovery. The Cougars intercepted four passes with Kale Blackshear getting two and Schroeder and Hauther having one each.
Morgan also played well on the defensive side of the line with eight tackles.
Piedmont is preparing for a completely different offensive attack this week when John Hancock visits Cougar Field for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Friday. John Hancock will grind it out as the Rebels from Sparta use a wishbone attack.
“They like to run their big fullback right up the middle,” Camp said. “He runs hard and runs downhill. They are going to run the football probably 80 percent of the time. They always seem to have some speed. We are going to have to wrap up and tackle well. They will try to establish their running game early.”
Camp is hoping to get some players back from injury in coming weeks. Clint Fields saw some playing time last Friday against Central Fellowship. Andy Hall is expected to be ready to go against John Hancock and Gree Roberts could return in a few more weeks.
The Piedmont Academy junior varsity was scheduled to open the season last week against Nathanael Greene, but the game was postponed. Attempts to re-schedule the contest for earlier this week were not successful. The JV Cougars are scheduled to be off this week and will travel to Monroe Academy Sept. 21.
“Right now we need our JV players to get in a game,” Camp said. “We may add some more games to the schedule.