By Staff
Zack Brooks
The Escambia Academy Cougars continued their dominant division play Friday night in Canoe with a convincing 33-0 spanking of the Coosa Valley
Academy Rebels to run their record to 4-1 on the year. I was really impressed with the intensity our guys came out with," Escambia Head Coach Heath Gibson said. "We came out and hit them in the mouth and I do not think they were expecting that." The game was never close for the Cougars as they jumped out to a quick 20-0 lead after the first quarter in route to the thirty-three point victory.
Kevin White began the scoring for the Cougars as he scored from one yard out with 7:47 left in the first to give the Cougars a 6-0 lead. White then kicked the conversion to make the score 7-0.
After a quick Rebel three and out on offense, the Escambia offense got rolling again as Bruce Smith took an inside counter play eighteen yards for a touchdown to give the Cougars a 13-0 lead.
A six-yard touchdown pass from EA quarterback Josh Montel to Cody Norton provided the Cougar's next points as they took a commanding 20-0 lead into the second quarter.
Norris Brooks scored the Cougar's last points of the half as he galloped in from 21-yards out to make the score 26-0. The conversion was good by J.R. Hall so the score jumped to 27-0 heading into halftime.
"Our seniors came out and took control of the game in the first half," Gibson said. "They took it upon themselves to work hard this summer in practice and it is showing during the games this year."
The Rebels came out in the second half and held the ball almost the entire third quarter but nothing would come out of it as the Cougars stiffened when they had to and carried a shutout into the final quarter.
The Cougars scored the lone touchdown in the second half when Brooks ran it in from 10-yards out with 11:27 left in the fourth quarter to make the final margin of 33-0.
I was surprised at how well our younger guys played in the second half," Gibson said. "When we got ahead so much in the first half, we decided to let the younger guys play most of the rest of the game and they played extremely well."
The Academy continued their dominance with the ground game as they totaled more than 250-yards rushing and had at least one ball carrier go over the one hundred yard barrier for the fourth game in a row.
Kevin White led the Cougars rushing attack as he had 162 yards and a touchdown on nine carries for a phenomenal 18.0 yard a carry average.
Norris Brooks and Bruce Smith also had good games on the ground for the Cougars as Brooks had 43-yards on four carries and two touchdowns while Smith had 33-yards on three carries and one touchdown. Josh Montel also had another good game passing for the Cougars as he completed six out of seven passes for 123-yards and one touchdown. Brooks lead the Cougars in receiving with three catches for 63 yards and Smith also had 56 yards on two catches. Bucky Dawson and Oliver Petty led the Cougars on defense as both finished with seven tackles and Dawson also had a sack for the second straight game.
The Cougars travel to Abbyville for their next game. This game will have major playoff implications, as Abbyville will be one toughest games on the remaining Cougar schedule. The game will start at 7:30.