The Graham G-Men came into Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium/Joel Hicks Field Friday night with a solid football team, but they were also aided by five Pulaski County turnovers at key points of the game. The Cougars fell by a final score of 52-24.
“Anytime you lose it stings, but this one hurts a little more just because we did so much of the damage to ourselves,” Cougar Head Coach Cam Akers said. “You can’t spot a team like Graham 14 points. You can’t turn the ball over five times. You can’t have the penalties. We have a pretty good football team, but we’ve got to be more consistent.”
The problems began immediately for the Cougars. After a nice kickoff return, the Cougars were hit with a 15-yard penalty for taunting. Before the ball was snapped the first time, the Cougars jumped and were hit with a five-yard illegal procedure penalty.
Despite the initial issues, the Cougars went to work. Quarterback Bryant Nottingham had a big run for a first down, but then he was sacked twice. The second resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Graham, giving them the ball on the Cougar 38-yard line. The Cougars were hit with a facemask penalty, then the G-Men connected on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Brayden Carr to Chris Edwards. Dylan Nash added the PAT to put Graham up 7-0 with 8:36 remaining in the first quarter.
The Cougars took over after the kickoff at their own 19. Big runs by Chase Lawrence, Nottingham, and Trevor Gallimore had the ball moving down the field into Graham territory, but another fumble hit the ground. This time, it was scooped up and Jamel Floyd for a 64-yard scoop-and-score. The PAT made it 14-0 Graham with 5:27 remaining in the first.
“We dug ourselves into a hole right away,” Coach Akers said. “We can’t afford to put ourselves in that position, but I thought our guys kept fighting out there. They kept working.”
Pulaski County put together a dandy of a drive on their next possession, covering 80 yards in seven plays. The score came on a nine-yard run by Gallimore with 2:48 remaining in the quarter. Nottingham added the PAT to put the Cougars back in the game, but still trailing 14-7.
The G-Men began to drive the ball, moving it to the Cougar 20-yard line before being forced to attempt a 37-yard field goal. It was good, putting Graham up 17-7 with 11:50 remaining in the half.
The Cougars came out with new energy, moving the ball from their own 10-yard line to deep inside the redzone before being forced to attempt a field goal of their own. Nottingham kicked the 27-yarder just enough, bouncing it off the rail and through the crossbars to move the score to 17-10 at the 6:18 mark of the second quarter.
Then some bad things happened for the Cougars. The defense stepped up and forced a Graham punt, but on the first play the Cougars fumbled again, giving the ball right back to Graham. The G-Men scored three plays later with a two-yard run by Ty’Drez Clements with 3:38 remaining. Pulaski County was forced to punt, and Graham added another score on an 11-yard pass from Carr to Edwards. The kicks put Graham up 31-10 with 2:37 remaining in the half.
The Cougars could have just packed it up and headed to the locker room, but they didn’t. Nottingham connected with Taner Mace on a 25-yard pass, then hit Chase Lawrence for 11 more yards. Two sacks left the Cougars with time for one more play, and they made the most of it. Nottingham found Marcus Reed covered by one player just short of the endzone. Reed jumped and made the catch, then bulled his way into the endzone with no time left on the clock. Nottingham added the PAT to send the score to 17-31 as the teams went into the halftime break.
The Cougar defense needed a stop to open the second half, and they got it. They needed a score to draw closer to the G-men. It took eight plays to cover the 50 yards, but they got it done on a 27-yard run by Lawrence with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter. The PAT moved the score to 31-24 in favor of the G-Men, but the Cougars were gaining momentum.
Graham calmly answered with an 80-yard drive, capping it off with a 12-yard touchdown run with 4:08 remaining in the third. Trailing 38-24, the Cougars fumbled the ball back to Graham. The G-Men were held to a 27-yard field goal attempt, but it hit the upright and was no good.
Pulaski County got the ball back but were forced to punt. Graham scored on the first play of the drive on a43-yard pass from Carr to Edwards. The PAT made it 45-24 with 9:44 remaining in the game. Another Cougar punt gave the ball back to Graham. They used one play to finish out the game, with Clements going 64 yards for the touchdown. The PAT put the final score at 52-24 for the G-Men.
Once again, the stats show how close Pulaski County was to having a win if not for the turnovers.
The Cougars had 22 first downs. The G-Men had 13. The Cougars ran the ball 54 times for 275 yards. Graham ran 23 times for 164 yards. Bryant Nottingham completed completed seven-of-11 pass attempts for the Cougars for 113 yards, giving them 388 total yards of offense. The G-Men completed nine-of-13 pass attempts for 190 yards, giving them 354 total yards. The Cougars committed eight penalties for 72 yards. Graham was called for four penalties for 38 yards.
Individually, Trevor Gallimore ran the ball 28 times for 146 yards and a touchdown. Chase Lawrence ran 10 times for 90 yards and a score, plus caught two passes for 41 yards. Isaiah O’Dell ran three times for 30 yards. Bryant Nottingham ran 10 times for 10 yards. Tyler Underwood ran once for three yards and caught one pass for 10 yards. Marcus Reed caught two passes for 37 yards and a score. Taner Mace caught one pass for 25 yards.
“It’s disappointing,” Coach Akers said. “These guys play their guts out, but we just can’t have the turnovers and penalties. Our guys aren’t going to pack it in. We’re going to come back in Monday and get back to work. We need to play make these last two regular season games our best yet.”
The Cougars will travel to Roanoke next week to take on the Hidden Valley Titans. Hidden Valley earned their first win of the season this week, defeating Blacksburg 30-6.