Cougars Fall To Trinity Christian

Piedmont Academy’s football team ventured away from home for the first time this season, falling 27-14 to host Trinity Christian School in Dublin.

The Cougars were within one score late in the game when the Crusaders tacked on a 79-yard run for what turned out to be a two-touchdown victory. Piedmont is now 0-1-1 during the early portion of the 2013 slate.

“I thought effort-wise, we took a step back,” said coach Rhett Farmer. “I don’t know if the heat and humidity had something to do with it. We struggled with players cramping Friday night. After the game, I thought our effort was pretty good, but after watching the film you could see we took some plays off.”

Gaven Edge led the Piedmont offense with 116 yards on the ground on 19 attempts. Hunter Knox rushed for 57 yards on 12 carries and also threw for 85 yards. He rushed for one score and threw another to Hank Strickland on a 57-yard hookup.

Despite nearly 300 yards of offense, Farmer said three turnovers by his team were costly. The coach said one play, which resulted in an interception, was a bad play call on his part while another interception was caused by the wrong play being relayed in. A third turnover came on a fumble inside the Trinity 10-yard line, which ended a long drive by the Cougars.

“Offensively, we turned the football over too much,” Farmer said. “We had none in our first game against Westwood and then had three Friday night. Trinity caused some of the problems. They are a big, strong and physical team. Not only is there line big, but their skill people are big.”

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In looking at some of the positives, Farmer said Knox ran the option well and Strickland continues to make big plays as a receiver.

“We fought hard when we realized we had a chance, but we took too many plays off,” the coach said.

Piedmont defensive coordinator Jeff Kent said there were some positives Friday but the team still has some things to work out moving forward.

“Everything is fixable with practice and time,” Kent said. “I think the Westwood game (the previous week) was such an emotional game, we may have still been dealing with that to some degree. Trinity was very big and talented. Maybe we will get a chance to meet them again.”

The Cougars will host Brentwood, a perennial playoff team this Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles ended Piedmont’s season in 2012 in the opening round of the playoffs.

“They are good year in and year out,” Farmer said. “They run the Wing T very well. Coach (Bert) Brown does a great job. They do what they do. They aren’t changing. That’s what makes them a successful program.”

Through the years, Brentwood had made some adjustments to the Wing-T attack, such as running more empty sets to spread defenders out.

The Piedmont coaches have not been able to watch much video of the Eagles’ passing attack this season. In their game against John Milledge, Brentwood did not throw the football one time.

“We have to be content with moving the ball four yards at a time and running the clock,” Farmer said. “Our linebackers have to trust their readers. We have to be very disciplined and not let them get us out of position.”

Defensively, Kent said he has been stressing fundamentals in practice this week in preparation for Brentwood.

“We’ll have to trust our reads,” Kent said. “We will look to stop the run first. We are working on making physical tackles. They do so many things in the backfield that we have to make sure we focus on what our assignments are.”

STATS vs. Trinity

Offense

•Gaven Edge, 19 carries for 116 yards

•Hunter Knox, 12 carries for 57 yards, 1 TD; 3-of-9 passing, 85 yards, 1 TD

•Dylan Efird, 1 carry for 32 yards

•Hank Strickland, 1 catch for 57 yards, 1 TD

•Malik Reid, 1 catch for 8 yards

•Austin Taylor, 1 catch for 20 yard

Defense

•Dylan Efird, 13 tackles

•McKenzie Brittain, 11 tackles

First Quarter—T: Wyatt Payne, 9 pass from Gunnar Dixon (Whyatt Smith kick); P: Hunter Knox 1 run (run failed). Third Quarter—T: Seth Morton 24 pass from Dixon (Smith kick)

T: Smith 30-yard field goal. Fourth Quarter—T: Smith 18-field goal

P: 57-yard pass from Knox to Strickland (two-point pass from Knox to Strickland)

T: Stephone Johnson 79-yard run (Smith kick)