Cougars Travel To John Hancock

The Piedmont Academy football team will look to regroup this Friday as it ventures to John Hancock Academy in Sparta.

The Cougars (0-1) used their off week to work on improving their own game as well as looking ahead to their next road opponent. The Rebels enter the contest 0-2 after losses to Thomas Jefferson and Briarwood.

“They will be a hungry team,” Piedmont coach Clint Satterfield said. “We have to be ready to play.”

The Cougars were off this past Friday and used the time surrounding the open date not only to make needed self-improvements but to prepare for John Hancock.

“We had a good bye week,” Satterfield said. “We had several good practices. We just went back to work on getting better. We left some points on the field against Briarwood so we focused on being able to finish drives.”

In the team’s season opener, Justin Reynolds passed or 143 yards. Brody Anderson had nine catches for 81 yards while Landon Conner caught six passes for 51 yards. Luke Welch and Joe Clark also had receptions.

Clark was the team’s leading rusher with 12 carries for 45 yards. Michael Joseph added 22 yards on six rushes.

On the defensive side of the football, Connor and Welch both had six tackles while Dalton Wallace recorded five and Spencer Carter made four tackles. Mason Tanner, Gavin Mask, Cole Wade, Mark Hicks and Clark all had three tackles. Anderson had an interception.

“John Hancock runs some option but also throws the football some to the tight end,” Satterfield said. “They don’t have a lot of depth but showed some signs of being able to move the football. They scored the first touchdown in their game with Briarwood.”

This week the Piedmont coach said his team needs to line up correctly on defense at all times.

“We had some misalignments which cost us in the opener,” Satterfield said.

Kickoff in Sparta will be at 7:30 p.m.