Cougars Host Thomas Jefferson for Homecoming this Week

For the second time during the 2020 season the Piedmont Academy varsity football team had a game canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

The Cougars (4-1 overall) were scheduled to play at Creekside Christian Academy in McDonough last Friday but the game was called off during the week. Piedmont coach Will Johnson said that game will not be made up but another opponent could possibly be added to the schedule later in the season.

“That’s just something you have to deal with this season,” Johnson said.

“We made the best out of it by having two extra days to prepare for Thomas Jefferson. This will be our biggest game of the regular season. It has postseason implications. We have been looking forward to it since last December.”

The Cougars and Jaguars faced off in the GISA Class A state championship game in 2019. Thomas Jefferson emerged with a close win in that contest.

“They are strong again,” Johnson said of Friday’s homecoming opponent. “In my opinion, they are better than they were last year. They have more than 30 players on their roster. Football is a big focus for their school.”

Using a Wing T offense, the Jaguars (5-1 overall) will run the football the majority of the time.

“This year they just run right at you to try to overpower you and wear you down,” Johnson said. “They like to get three yards a carry and just grind it out and wear the defense down. They are going to take time off the clock and limit the number of possessions you get so we have to maintain drives and put points on the scoreboard.”

In Piedmont’s last game against Westfield, Luke Welch had six tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery while Tanner Locklear had five tackles and an assist. Jackson Welch recorded five tackles and an assist and John Reasoner added three tackles, three assists and a forced fumble.

Time of possession will be a key stat for both teams.

“It will be a chess match to see who makes the most of their time of possession,” Johnson said. “We have to convert third down and not stall when we have momentum. I know around the league people will look at this game to see how it turns out.”

Some of the key Thomas Jefferson key players that Piedmont will need to stop include senior fullback Matt McNeely.

“We have to be able to stop him in order to win the game,” Johnson said. “As good as he is, he is actually not their only strong player.”

The Jaguars also get offensive push from wingbacks Aidan Cobb and Dawson Sharpe. Both are seniors.

“Defensively their mentality will be to stop Chris Pittman and limit the things he does,” Johnson said. “Both teams will need several players to step up. Offensively for us we need big efforts from Luke Welch, Ryan Holder, Bradley Greenwood, Tanner Locklear and Joe Clark. It could very well come down to who has the better supporting cast.”

Johnson said it will be the best environment for his team since last year’s state championship game. The Piedmont coach said it will be a playoff environment this week.”

Thomas Jefferson coach Terence Hennessy said Pittman is “a tremendous player.”

“We have played some good teams this season,” Hennessy said. “Brentwood is probably the best team in Class AA and one of the top three teams in the entire GISA. Pittman could play for Brentwood. That’s how good he is. He is a great runner but when you take that away he will beat you with his arm. He had a great game against Memorial and kept his team in the game against Westfield.”

The key in their run-oriented offense for the Jaguars will be to limit turnovers.

“We have limited turnovers in our wins,” said Hennessy. “In our loss we turned it over several times. Defensively, we want our opponent to have to drive the football down the field. We can’t give up big plays. We want teams to go seven, eight or nine plays if they are going to score.”

Preparing for the Cougars defensively has been a challenge for his team, the TJA coach said.

“I have seen 47 different formations and 22 different kinds of motion,” Hennessy said. “I am not that smart. Defensively they mix things up well. I hope It’s a good game because if not we could be in for long night. If they make a couple of big plays we may be in trouble. We are OK if we are within two scores but beyond that we have to do things we aren’t comfortable doing. We can throw it but it is not what we want to do. It is not who we are and not our mentality. We want to run on first, down, run on second down and then run on third and fourth down. We can’t get behind the sticks.”

Kickoff at Cougar Field is set for 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 23.