Cougars Win Region Opener

Piedmont Academy’s football team ushered in its region schedule Friday with a 29-14 home win against Dominion.

That victory puts the Cougars on the path toward a possible region title and an all-important No. 1 seed for the postseason. Coach Rhett Farmer said he took some positives from the game as well as seeing some areas that still need improvement as the team moves forward.

“We played very hard and I was pleased with our physical effort,” the coach said. “We made some mistakes and that is still a sign of being a young team. Some of the mistakes were caused by poor play calling on my part.”

Farmer said he felt his team had an advantage throwing the football with a height advantage on Dominion’s secondary. The higher number of passes than normal led to some interceptions by the Cougars.

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“We probably should have run the football more,” Farmer said. “However, I am still proud of the team. We had a great effort. We should have scored more points, but a win is a win.”

Peter Lawson had a big offensive night with 230 yards on 30 carries and a touchdown. The senior also caught a two-point conversion.

Hunter Knox rushed for 40 yards and nine carries and passed for another 93 yards and two scores. Gaven Edge had two catches for 79 yards, both of which resulted in touchdowns.

Nick Dimsdale added 93 yards on the ground with a score and caught two passes for 14 yards. He also had a two-point conversion catch.

Defensively, Josh Hempel had three sacks on his way to earning Player of the Week honors. He also had two solo tackles, two assists and a pass break-up.

Hunter Clark recorded four solo stops with two assists while Malik Reid added three solo tackles and four assists.

Friday’s win improves Piedmont to 3-5 overall and 1-0 in Region 4-AA.

The Cougars will have a non-scheduled off date Friday since Arlington Christian dropped its program after the 2012 season began.

“They ended up at a point where they felt they couldn’t continue,” Farmer said.

That will likely make the Nov. 2 game against Flint River for the region championship.

“We will go ahead and start preparing for Flint River,” Farmer said. “We won’t exchange film with them until next week but we will begin our work for them.”

The Piedmont coach said the defensive line played well at times last Friday but suspect at others.

“Dominion threw it about 80 percent of the time,” the coach said. “Our front seven played pretty well. Our tackles and nose tackles played disciplined football. We gave up a couple of big pass plays but when a team throws it 42 times there’s a chance of that.

“They only lined up with a two-back set a couple of times.” Lawson, Knox and Hank Strickland each had interceptions.