Cougars Earn First Win of Season

A strong second-half surge helped put the Piedmont Academy football team in the victory column last week.

Coach Rhett Farmer’s squad defeated visiting Briarwood 23-12 to even its 2009 season record at 1-1. While pleased with the win, Farmer said his team still needs work in some areas.

“It is good to be on the winning side,” the first-year Cougar head coach said. “Once again our kids played with great heart and effort. We did make some mistakes that were discouraging. Gradually we have to get away from making those mistakes if we are going to have the type of season we want to have.”

Trailing at halftime, Piedmont rallied for a win, something which impressed Farmer as the Cougars lost standout Austin Mitcham after he suffered a concussion. Mitcham has been one of the team’s top defensive players and was also contributing at tight end against Briarwood.

“It was great to see us not panic and still win,” the coach said. “However, we had too many penalties. We aren’t good enough to do that and continue to overcome it.”
Mitcham will likely be back on the field for this week’s contest.

“We have every reason to believe he will be back,” Farmer said. “He had a gash on his forehead but with a concussion you don’t want to take any chances. He was just playing hard-nosed football.”

Blake Hammock was a workhouse for Piedmont totaling more than 200 yards on 33 carries last week. Hammock scored one of the team’s three touchdowns with Alex Hall and Peter Lawson also finding the endzone. The Cougars also benefited from a field goal from Sam Cleary.

“We are still not comfortable running the option,” Farmer said. “For us to have success, we have to have someone comfortable pounding the football.”

Dakota Collins also stood out at fullback running the trap while Lawson’s big run late helped sealed the game.
Farmer also said Hall kept his composure in the game doing what the coaches needed him to do.

Defensively, Luke Harvey was a standout at defensive end with Matt Wilson playing well having moved from defensive tackle to linebacker.

“I was proud of our defense in spots,” Farmer said. “I know Coach (Wes) Tanner didn’t like the one long run Briarwood had but he made some great adjustments.”

A change has been made on the schedule for this week for Piedmont. Originally, the Cougars were set to play Westminster but the school did not field a varsity team this season.

Instead, Piedmont will face the Crown Athletic Knights, a home-schooled team from Marietta. Farmer said the program has approximately 40 players and enters the game at 3-0.
“They are playing well and have some great skill people,” the Cougar coach said. “They have crossed over and played some GISA schools. In order to get our option scheme in, we thought it would be better for us to play rather than not try and schedule another opponent and just have nine games. We decided to roll the dice and play.”

The contest is set for 7:30 p.m. at Cougar Field.

Stats vs. Briarwood
Offense
Blake Hammock: 33 carries for 2-3 yards, 1 touchdown
Dakota Collins, 11 carries for 53 yards
Peter Lawson, 2 carries for 23 yards, 1 touchdown
Alex Hall, 6 carries for 23 yards, 1 touchdown
Defense:
Luke Harvey, 5 solo tackles, one for loss, 4 assists
Blake Hammock, 3 solo tackles
Buddy Morrison, 2 solo tackles, 5 assists
Dakota Collins, 1 solo tackle, 7 assists
Austin Mitcham, 3 assists
Zach Benjamin, 1 solo tackle, 3 assists
Dylan Collins, 2 solo tackles, 4 assists
Jakey Dunagan, 1 solo tackle, five assists
Matt Wilson, 1 solo tackle, 6 assists
Garrett Richardson, 2 assists
Rhett Roberts, 1 solo tackle, 4 assists
Daniel Leinweber, 3 assists
Bryce Kinard, 1 assist
Peter Lawson, 2 solo tackles, 1 assist
Special Teams
Sam Cleary, 2-for-3, PAT, 27-yard-field
Peter Lawson, 34-yard kickoff return
Blake Hammock, 28 and 27-yard kickoff returns
Player of the Week
Blake Hammock