By By Chandler Myers
The Cougars of Canoe suffered their first home loss of the season Friday night falling 35-13 to the Marengo Academy Longhorns at Bachelor Field.
The Cougars (4-3, 2-1) were riding a two-game winning streak coming into the game and had picked up their first road win of the season last week against Wilcox Academy.
Coming into the game, the Cougars were dealing with a number of injuries that plagued them throughout the game.
Cougars head coach Heath Gibson said it was a hard-fought game that just punished his players even more than last week.
The bright spot of the night for the Cougars’ offense were the two touchdown runs by running back Jaylen Henry that went for 90 yards and 53 yards that gave the Cougars their 13 points. James Dean converted an extra point after one of the touchdowns.
The passing game also had some life in the loss with Jon Dean completing several passes.
Gibson said the Cougars were pushed around up front, which hurt them when they tried to get things going on offense.
Defensively, the Cougars fought an uphill battle with the offenses problems setting them up with bad field position all night.
Cameron “Cowboy” McGhee led the Cougars with 14 tackles, while Jon Dean finished the night with 11 of his own.
Ethan Linam and Cedo Coon also got in the mix on defense with Linam finishing the contest with eight tackles and Coon recording five stops in the loss.
Gibson said the defense played well, but just could not stop the Longhorns from putting the ball in the end zone.
Next week, the Cougars host the Clarke Prep Gators for their homecoming.
Gibson said a successful week of practice mixed with healing from injuries will help the Cougars have a chance to win.
The Cougars and Gators kick off next Friday at 7 p.m. at Bachelor Field.