PCHS Activities/Athletics

(Quarterback Bryant Nottingham celebrates as Aden Drummonds recovers a Tazewell fumble in the endzone for a touchdown)

It wasn’t always pretty, and it took a little bit of luck, but the Pulaski County Cougar football team came home with their first win of the season Friday night after earning a 26-6 victory at Tazewell High School.

“It’s good to get a win, and we’re happy about that, but we know we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Cougar Football Head Coach Cam Akers said. “We still made too many mistakes. We still didn’t tackle well enough. We still need to block better. But with all that said, we did some good things too. We’ll head home, enjoy the win, break down the film, and get back to work. We’ve got a bye week next week, so that’s going to give us a little time to heal up a few players and work on getting where we want to be.”

The Cougars opened the scoring with 2:49 remaining in the first quarter when Maddox Thompson found room up the middle for a one-yard touchdown run. Bryant Nottingham was good for the point after to put the Cougars up 7-0. 

The two teams traded punts for a while, but Tazewell wasn’t going to just lay down. With 2:02 remaining in the second quarter they scored on an 11-yard run. The point after was no good, leaving the Cougars up 7-6. Pulaski County attempted a long field goal near the end of the half that went wide left, and that score remained as the first half came to an end.

The third quarter saw more of the two teams going back and forth, but no one scored until Thompson crossed the goal line from 18 yards out with just 39 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Nottingham again added the PAT to put the Cougars up 14-6.

Bending but not breaking, the Cougar defense came up big. The ball came loose and hit the ground. It rolled and was batted around until senior lineman Aden Drummonds recovered it in the endzone for a touchdown. The point after attempt was no good, leaving the Cougars up 20-6 with 8:32 remaining in the game.

Another Tazewell turnover gave the Cougars excellent field position, and Nottingham took advantage when he scored on a five-yard run with 5:20 remaining in the game. The PAT was blocked, leaving Pulaski County up by the final score of 26-6. Nottingham took a knee on the final two plays of the game to move the Cougars to 1-1 on the season.

“We needed a win,” Coach Akers said. “I thought we played a little better tonight, but we know we’re not where we want to be. The bye week is coming at a good time for us. It was great to see the fans come all the way down for the game too. We appreciate all of the support from them, the band, and our cheerleaders.”

The Cougars will enjoy a week off, then host Staunton River Friday, September 19.

Stats

Team Stats

Rushing

PC: 42 attempts/168 yards

T: 41/122

Passing

PC: 5-7-0/75 yards

T: 4-12-1/13

Total Yards

PC: 243

T: 135

1st Downs

PC: 13

T: 10

Penalties

PC: 4/30 yards

T: 10/78

Fumbles/Lost

PC: 0/0

T: 5/2

Return Yards

PC: 17

T: 25

Individual Stats

Rushing

PC: Nottingham 8/75, Thompson 14/60, Carrasco 9/28, Wilson 6/5

T: #10 24/131, #2 7/13, #15 2/23, #1 7/2, #3 1/-1

Passing

PC: Nottingham 5-7-0/75 yards

T: #1 4-12-1/13 yards

Receiving

PC: Carrasco 2/35, White 1/14, Lewis 1/14, Aviles 1/12

T: #2 2/16, #3 2/-3

Interceptions

PC: White

T: n/a

Fumble Recoveries

PC: Drummonds, Price

T: n/a

Scores from around the district and region

Abingdon 28, Christiansburg 9

Blacksburg 36, James River 26

Franklin County 31, Salem 21