Pulaski County Cougar running back Trevor Gallimore blasted his way into the record books Friday, helping lead the Cougars to a dominating 69-13 win over the Blacksburg Bruins.
With the win, the Cougars move to 2-5 and showed a glimpse of what Head Coach Cam Akers feels the team could be.
“We’ve got to value our victories,” Coach Akers told the team after the game. “We know what we’ve got to improve on, and we know where we need to get better. Tonight we’ll celebrate, because we earned it, but tomorrow is a new day. We won this one. We were supposed to win. Next week we’ll have a tougher one. Let’s enjoy tonight, then tomorrow we start getting ready for our next opponent.”
The Cougars took the opening kickoff and drove the ball down the field against the Blacksburg defense, scoring on a two-yard run by Gallimore with 8:30 remaining in the first. Bryant Nottingham added the point after to put the Cougars up 7-0.
Blacksburg answered with a 66-yard run down the home sideline by Luke Poff. The PAT was blocked by Chase Lawrence, leaving the Cougars up 7-6 with 7:20 remaining in the first.
The Cougars got the ball, but were forced to punt. Blacksburg took advantage, with quarterback Ethan Karpa connecting with Poff on an 83-yard touchdown pass, again down the home sideline. The PAT made the score 13-7 for the Bruins.
The Cougars clearly did not enjoy being behind. With eight seconds remaining in the first quarter, Trevor Gallimore struck paydirt from 37 yards out for his second of the game. Nottingham hit the PAT to put Pulaski County back in the lead, 14-13. The Cougars never looked back from there.
The second quarter saw Pulaski County cross the goal line seven times. Several of those scored came after an energized Cougar defense stuffed the Bruins offense, forcing punts. Some came after the Cougars forced turnovers, giving Pulaski County a short field.
The first came on a 40-yard scoring strike from Nottingham to Marcus Reed with 11:02 remaining in the half. Gallimore added a 50-yard touchdown run with 9:17 remaining. Less than four minutes later, Gallimore struck again, this time from 40 yards out. Another Bruin punt gave the Cougars the ball at their own 40. Nottingham dropped back and put the ball up again for Reed, he pulled the ball out of the grasp of two Bruin defenders and glided into the endzone for a 60-yard score. Each time Nottingham hit the point after. By this point, the Cougars led 42-13 with4:13 remaining in the half.
Isaiah O’Dell made an incredible interception on a bobbled ball by a Bruin receiver, giving the Cougars the ball again. Gallimore hit the seam and raced 52 yards for his fifth rushing touchdown of the game, tying a school record. The run also put him over the single game rushing record. His teammates were aware by this point how close he was to even more history, and they wanted it for him.
To do that, they needed to get the ball back. The Cougar defense again stepped up to the challenge, this time Tyler Underwood recovered a Bruin fumble after the Cougar defenders broke into the backfield.
With 1:03 remaining in the first half, Trevor Gallimore raced 11 yards through the heart of the Bruin defense to score his sixth rushing touchdown of the game. His teammates and the crowd went wild.
“Man, that was great to see him get those records,” Coach Akers said. “Trevor is a great young man and a great teammate. It was also great to see his teammates pulling for him like they were. They were determined for him to get the record.”
Pulaski County wasn’t done just yet, however, and after another fumble recovery, this time by freshman Caleb Cregger after a big hit by Gallimore on a Bruin ball carrier, Nottingham broke through on a quarterback keeper from 11 yards out for the final Cougar score of the half. He added the point after to put Pulaski County up 62-13 with nine seconds remaining. Blacksburg took a knee to end the half.
While Pulaski County was and remains hungry for wins, the second half showed the type of sportsmanship that Pulaski County wants to be known for. Backups played the entire second half on a running clock, gaining valuable game experience.
“The points we scored in the first half, most of those were just hard running and good plays,” Akers said. “We’ve been on the other side of games like this. Blacksburg is down right now. One of these days, they’re going to be back in the mix. The goal is to win, not to humiliate someone. We won’t do that.”
With the clock running nonstop in the second half, things moved quickly. Blacksburg threatened a time or two, but each time the Cougar defenders made a play to stop them.
Pulaski County did add a final score late in the game when JV quarterback Brock Schneider broke loose and raced 31 yards for a touchdown. Nottingham added the PAT to make the final score 69-13.
“We needed this win,” Coach Akers said. “We’ve had a rough schedule against a lot of top teams. We’ve still got some good teams coming up, starting next week with Graham. We’ll break this film down and get to work on a plan for that game immediately. It was great to see the older players working with the younger players from the sideline tonight. That's leadership. We appreciate all the fans that came out to the game tonight, and the support from the band and cheerleaders. That Cougar Pride makes a lot of our away games almost like home games.”
Game Stats
Team Stats
First Downs
PC: 20
BB: 8
Rushing
PC: 41 attempts/497 yards
BB: 26 attempts/85 yards
Passing
PC: 2-2-0/100 yards
BB: 10-21-1/142 yards
Total Yards
PC: 597 yards
BB: 227 yards
Fumbles/Lost
PC: 1-0
BB: 3-2
Penalties
PC: 1-15
BB: 2-10
Individual Stats
Rushing
PC: Gallimore 22 attempts-357 yards, Schneider 3-88, O’Dell 4-22, Nottingham 2-18, Lawrence 3-4, Parker Price 6-7, Maddox Thompson 1-1
BB: Karpa 7/-28 yards, Poff 2/66, Eldridge 12/32, Lattimer 5/15
Passing
PC: Nottingham 2-2-0/100 yards, 2 TD
BB: Karpa 10-21-1/142 yards, TD
Receiving
PC: Reed 2/100 yards, 2 TD
BB: Poff 7/125, Waldron 2/13