Tough Weekend For The Chatham-Kent Cougars
A Peewee Chatham-Kent Cougars player carries the ball against Vaughan – Photo by Dean Creechan
The Chatham-Kent Cougars Peewee team defeated the Vaughn Rebels 35-18.
Ethan Ciupka got things rolling with a 68-yard TD on the 2nd play from scrimmage. Hunter Shepley had an outstanding kicking day making 5 for 5 for PAT and having 2 excellent kickoffs. Shepley’s PATs were significant and gave Chatham a two score lead later in the 3rd. Darion Bacik had a long run to the one yard line and was then rewarded with the one yard plunge for a TD. The Vaughn Rebels had a long drive and scored making the score 14-6. Nakoma Scott answered with a TD run to end the half 21-12.
In the second half, Ethan Jordan had a 55 yard run for a TD to give the Cougars a comfortable lead. The Rebels scored again, making the score 28-18. Ethan Ciupka had another long run for 42 yards in the 4th quarter, this set up a Nakoma Scott 24 yard TD run to put the game out of reach.
Defensively, the Cougars played well as a team and did a lot of gang tackling on the Rebel ball carriers. Ethan Ciupka and Tanner Hoorelbeck both had 11 tackles, Darion Bacik had 7 tackles, Quintin Emerick 6 tackles, and Dante Handsor, Penny Hailey, Dreydon Ronda had 5 tackles.
The Peewee Cougars travel up to Burlington to play the Stampeders next Sunday at 11:30am.
In the Junior Cougars game, the team fell to the Forest City Thunderbirds 18-6.
“Tough game, very rusty due to not having much of an opportunity to practice full out as a team as we are respecting the boys junior high school seasons,” says Cougars coach Kevin Pugh. “We’ll be all hands on deck by the end of the week and expect the team to meld together quickly.”
Kelton Evans and Jake Anderson paced the Chatham-Kent offence, with Evan going 10 for 25 for 145 yards, and a touchdown pass to Jake Anderson, who picked up 105 receiving yards, and 14 rushing yards.
Clay Shreve, Desi Rush, and Jermaine Caldwell also picked up key yards in the air, and on the ground for the still bonding Chatham-Kent Cougars Juniors.
Defensively, Eric Penney led the way with 8 tackles, 1 interception and a fumble recovery while also returning punts totalling 41 yards. Quentin Forgie had 8 tackles, while Alex Formosa and Ricky O’Rourke had 6 tackles a piece and O’Rourke a sack.
In the Senior Cougars game, the the Forest City Thunderbirds again got the better of Chatham-Kent, rolling to a 42-0 win. Carter Wood made 7 tackles, while Erich Demars had 6 tackles, and Trevor Niven had an interception and fumble recovery in the loss.
The Bantam Cougars opened their season with a 56-0 loss to Forest City as well. Patrick Ezewski and Connor Wright led the defense with 7 tackles each, along with an interception from Ryan Muharrem.