Cougars Fall To Valwood
Battling tough odds, the Piedmont Academy football team gave visiting Valwood a fight last Friday night only to fall short in the end 20-6.
Still playing without some key members of the roster who remain out because of injury, the Cougars simply couldn’t make the “smoke and mirrors” strategy work. The game was the final non-region contest of the season for Piedmont.
“The injury bug has not helped our offensive situation, ”Cougar head coach Beau Johnson said. “We need some consistency on offense.
Hopefully this week we can have our normal people in their respective positions. Last week was very frustrating on offense. Nothing looked good. It was just ugly at times. Smoke and mirrors football just doesn’t cut it in our league. Due to all of our injuries, we were forced to do that, however.”
Despite all that, Johnson said his team still battled Valwood and could have been within 20-14 late in the game had it not been for one penalty.
“It’s funny but five plays cost us that ballgame and I try to tell the players you never know when those five plays are coming,” the coach said. “You just have to be ready. Valwood made plays and we did not. We have to do a better job coaching and understanding game situa-tions with our kids. I am proud of how hard our kids played Friday night.”
The Piedmont coach said he did not want to take away from his opponent last week noting Valwood was a very good football team with some outstanding athletes.
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“Our kids fought hard, especially on defense, but we were outmanned up front,” he said. “This is an issue we are going to have to deal with if we want to compete win Class AA in the future. We are 12-15 years behind in the weight room and it has showed against the bigger and stronger teams in AA. Our three losses have come to opponents with a combined 19-3 record.
Those programs are just light years ahead of us in their conditioning programs.We have worked hard to improve our weight program, but we still have a long way to go. ”Justin Aktins was Piedmont’s leading rusher last Friday with 63 yards on 16 attempts. Blake Hammock added 42 yards on six rushes. Ryan Dinardo caught two passes for 17 yards.
The Cougars will look to get back on track this Friday when
they travel to face Holy Spirit at 7:30 p.m. in Atlanta. This will be the second region game of the season for Johnson’s team. Holy Spirit is 5-2 overall with both losses by one point.
“They should be undefeated,” Johnson said. “They have a ton of talent. They are every bit as good as Valwood in the skill players department. We could be in for a long Friday night if we do not get it together in a hurry. Their line averages around 250 per man and they have some speed at the skill positions. Our film session was a nightmare watching their players running all over the place.”
The Piedmont coach said this game will go a long way in determining how his team finishes in the region race.
“We will see a fired up team ready to crown themselves the
Region 4-AA champion,” Johnson said of Holy Spirit.
“I think we can spoil the party, but we will need to play sound defense, avoid big plays and score at least four touchdowns to win. We will need all the fan support we can muster in this one. Our seniors have worked hard to get us in a position to win the region. Now is the time for all us, including the coaches, to step up and make it happen.”
STATS
Justin Atkins: 16 carries for 63 yards
Blake Hammock: six carries for 42 yards
Kale Blackshear: six carries for 29 yards
D.J. Allen: 3-of-6 passing for 28 yards, one TD
Ryan Dinardo: two catches for 17 yards
Justin Atkins: one catch for 11 yards, one TD
Nick Rubuelta: 11 tackles
Patrick Simoes: 8 tackles
D.J. Allen: 8 tackles
Blake Hammock: one interception