Cougars Show Growl in Season Openers

The Senior Varsity Chatham-Kent Cougars travelled to Hamilton on Sunday to take on the Hamilton-Wentworth Panthers. They started the game very strong with a big connection between starting quarterback Cole Herman and inside Receiver Lee Purnell for a 24 yard completion and touchdown, with Clark Green following up with the extra point.

Later in the first quarter Jonah Pataki followed up with 2 rushing touchdowns for a total of 68 yards and Green adding the extra points to take the Cougars to a 21-0 lead. In the second quarter Blayne Bechard scored a 9 yard rushing touchdown with Green following up once again to take the lead to 28-0. Hamilton-Wentworth fought back and answered with a big touchdown taking the score to 28-6. Into the second half, Hamilton-Wentworth answered with yet another touchdown to take the score to 28-13.

Late in the third, Alasdair Coy answered with a motivating 58 yard interception for a touchdown taking the score to 35-13. Also in the third Clark Green nailed a 21 yard Field Goal to cap it all off at 38-13. This weeks MVP, or “green bucket” recipient was Alasdair Coy for his stellar performance against Hamilton-Wenworth.

Next week, the Senior Varsity team travels up to North Bay to take on the Nipissing Wild.

The Chatham-Kent Bantam Cougars started the 2012 football season off right where they ended the 2011 season…with a tenacious defense and moving the ball through the air with a balanced attack, scoring early and often to beat the Forest City Thunderbirds 45 – 2. The first two possessions for the Cougars resulted in touchdowns in the air to Jake Anderson from quarterback Kelton Evans. One for 9 yards and the other a short hitch pass play that Anderson turned into a 64 yard touchdown reception.

On the next series the Thunderbirds stopped the Cougar offence and then Chatham elected to concede a 2 point safety rather than punt from their own end zone. After the Cougars stymied the Thunderbirds offence the Cougars took over again on their own 40yard line. Quarterback Nolan Ball marched the team down the field completing a 48 yard pass over the middle to Liberty Rountree on the drive setting up a 4 yard touchdown run by Jermaine Caldwell. Owen Dorsers converted all three touchdowns to give the Cougars a 21 – 2 lead heading into the second quarter.

The Cougar defense did not allow the Forest City offence to get rolling at all. Led early in the game by veteran players, Austin Miller and Quentin Forgie the run game of the Thunderbirds was stuffed several times. This forced the team from London to pass the ball but again they couldn’t get rolling as Brady Pataki applied all kinds of pressure on the pass rush and strong games by linebackers Ricky O’Rourke, Alex Formoss and deep backs Nolan Hakr and Ethan Baylis wouldn’t allow any receiver to get open.

The Cougars offence again drove over half the field to start the second quarter with Ball hitting Anderson on a 45 pass and run play to set up another Anderson rushing touchdown after he was switched to running back during the series. After the convert by Dorsers the Cougar lead was 28 – 2 at half time.
In the second half the Cougar defense continued to cause the Thunderbirds offense all kinds of trouble constantly forcing third and long situations and giving the Chatham offence good field position each exchange of the ball.

Offensively in the second half the Cougars continued to move the ball through the air and mixing in a number of run plays. Tanner Shuian capped a long Cougar drive with an 11 yard touchdown run and Owen Dorsers hit a field goal from 17 yards out to give the Cougars a comfortable 38 – 2 lead after three quarters. The scoring was capped by a 73 yard touchdown reception by Rountree from quarterback Evans. Dorsers’ convert capped the scoring resulting in the 45 – 2 Cougar win.

Offensively the Cougars gained 321 yards through the air. Quarterback Kelton Evan’s completed 8 of 15 passes for 225 yards and Nolan Ball was 3 of 4 for 96 yards. Eight different receivers caught passes. On the ground the Cougars had 6 different ball carriers combining for 173 yards rushing.

Defensively, the Cougars only gave up 5 first downs the entire game and Spencer Neil recovered a fumble for the Cougar defense. At one point early in the 4th quarter Forest City had a first and goal on the Cougars 7 yard line but after 3 sacs in a row the Thunderbirds turned the ball over on downs at the Cougar 20 yard line.

Next Saturday the Bantam team travels to Peterborough to face the Wolverines – a rematch of last season’s championship game teams.

The Peewee Cougars had a tough start to the season as they faced the defending Champions Forest City Thunderbirds. The young and inexperienced Cougars lost 48-0 to a bigger and faster opponent.

Daylene Mailloux led the offence 13 carries for 13 yards, while Ben Barnard had 2 carries for 12 yards, and Connor Wright 3 carries for 9 yards.

Chase Waddick completed 4 of 6 passes for for 22 yards, while Jarrett Millard had 2 catches for 22 yards.