A new coach and staff, a new offensive style, and a group of excited and athletic young men has helped the Pulaski County Middle School Cougar football team start their first season under new Head Coach Hunter Thomas in style.
Offensively as a team, the Cougars have used the same system as their older high school counterparts to dominate their opponents. A punishing rushing attack by the Cougars has netted over 200 yards in three of their first four games. The third game only accounted for 191 rushing yards.
Much of that success goes should be credited to the offensive line. Anius Slaughter, Rylan Coleman, Riley O’Neal, and Camron Burton, along with a few very solid backups, have opened the holes up for the backs on a regular basis.
The Cougars have featured a crew of running backs that are a mix of thumping power up the middle and blazing speed on the outside edges. Caleb Sartin leads the rushing attack with 28 carries for 420 yards and eight touchdowns. Speedster JD Grubb has added 23 carries for 236 yards and three more scores. Brock Schneider has 19 carries for 134 yards and three scores. Caleb Cregger, when he isn’t busy catching passes, playing defense, or kicking off, has ran the ball seven times for 71 yards and a score.
Altogether, the Cougars have ran the ball 93 times for 990 yards and 17 touchdowns in four games. That’s a very impressive 10.64 yards per carry average.
The Cougar defense started the season off by holding Andrew Lewis to just one yard of total offense. Since then, they’ve allowed 414 yards on 114 rushing attempts (3.63 yards per carry) and saw the opposition complete 10 of 26 pass attempts for 77 yards and two interceptions. That’s 491 total yards of offense allowed in four games.
PCMS continued their winning ways Thursday as they hosted Christiansburg Middle School at Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium/Joel Hicks Field. Despite the fact that the Blue Demons scored first and last, the Cougars pulled out the 30-19 victory.
Christiansburg put up the first points of the game on a three-yard run with 5:13 remaining in the first quarter. The Cougars answered just under two minutes later when Brock Schneider kept the ball and went 19 yards into the endzone. Kaleb Sartin ran the two-point conversion in to give Pulaski County the 8-7 lead.
Christiansburg answered in the second quarter with a 14-yard scoring run. The extra point attempt was no good, leaving the Blue Demons up 13-8.
That’s when the Cougar offensive line and Sartin came alive. Sartin scored three straight touchdowns in the second and third quarters. His first was a 71-yard run with 6:02 remaining in the second quarter. Tucker Williams ran the two-point attempt in. Sartin scored again with 2:18 remaining in the second. The Cougars took a 22-13 lead into the halftime break.
Pulaski County scored the only points of the third quarter with 34 seconds remaining. Sartin took the ball and raced 84 yards for the score. Maddox Thompson ran the two pointer in to put the Cougars up 30-13.
Christiansburg added a final score to the book with a two-yard run with 2:31 remaining in the game. The failed PAT left the final score at 30-19 for the Cougars.
Sartin led the way with eight carries for 207 yards. Schneider had six runs for 25 yards. JD Grubb ran three times for 19 yards. Williams ran three times for seven yards.
The Cougars are scheduled to travel to Blacksburg Wednesday, Sept. 21, for a date with the Bruins.