Cougar Flag Football Team Meets up with Core Community
3-12-24 Core @ The Cottage School
The Cougar varsity flag football team played their third game of the season at home against Core Community.
It was a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon when the Cougars hit the field. Cottage started on offense with a big throw from Jackson Barnes to Maxwell Lagan for 33 yards. Sadly though, on the next play, Jackson tried to find Maxwell deep again and threw his first interception of the season. The Cougars tried their best but could not catch the Core defender. For the first time this season, the Cougars let in a touchdown and were down to the other team.
After the interception, the Cougar offense came back on the field ready to redeem themselves. However, on the first play the Cougars received a penalty. Then, the Cougars caught fire. Jackson made a throw to Jack Kane for 30 yards, followed by one to Andrew Dorsey for 20 yards, and finally a completion to Maxwell for 20 yards and a touchdown. Jack came up with a big catch over two Core defenders for the 2pt play. The score now is 8 – 8.
The Cottage School is now back on defense, and they were ready to shut down Core. The first play for Core’s offense was a completion with little gain because of a big tackle from Davis Bradley. On second down, Core found another receiver but again Cottage gave up little yards with a tackle from Gabe Belden. On third down, Colin Barlow and Davis played great defense to force a Core incompletion but there was contact from the blitzer and the center to give Core a first down. Cottage didn’t get down or give up, even though Core only needed about 5 yards to get another first down. On first down, Weston Kershner played great defense and caused an incomplete pass but on second down Core made a completion for first down. Core needed about 40 yards to score, and the Cottage defense wasn’t ready to give up the first touchdown on them. On first down Colin Barlow made a great tackle. On second down Core had an incomplete pass. Then on third down, Max Rusert got the first sack of the season for TCS. On fourth and long, Core did make a completion, but Andrew was there to make a quick tackle and got Cottage the ball back.
It did not take long for the Cottage offense to move down the field on their third offensive series. The first play was a deep pass from Jackson to Maxwell for 40 yards. Then a drop-down pass to Colin for 15 yards. Which was followed by a third down touchdown pass to Colin for 10 yards. The Cougars didn’t get the extra point but led Core 14 to 8.
Cottage defense came out strong against Core offense again. Gabe started it off with a great tackle, followed by another great tackle by Alyssa Briggs, and on third down Max Rusert came up with his 2nd sack of the season (which is also the Cougars second sack of the season). On fourth down, Core made a big completion but Weston never gave up and made the tackle just short of the first down marker. This great effort from Weston got the Cougars the ball back.
The Cougars were still hot from their last series on offense, and they started the drive with a 40-yard completion to Andrew Dorsey from Jackson Barnes. This was followed by an incomplete pass, but the Cougars didn’t let that get them down. Instead, Jackson Barnes made a completion to Colin for 20 yards, followed by another pass to Colin for 10 yards, and then Jackson found Colin for a third time but this time for a touchdown (Colin’s second TD of the game). Again, the Cougars struggled on the extra point, but they led 20 to 8 at halftime.
At the start of the second half, Core started on offense. The Cougar defense came out to start the second half hungry. On first down, Core made a completion for a short gain because Aylssa was there to make a quick tackle. On Core’s second down, Davis Bradley put pressure on the QB and forced him to make a bad throw for an incompletion. Third down saw another incompletion with Colin playing defense on the wide receiver and then on fourth down Colin came up with a quick tackle to make Core turnover the ball on downs.
After the defensive stop, the Cougars offense came on the field to try to put the game out of reach. Jackson Barnes came out hot. He completed all five of his passes on the way to his fourth touchdown pass. The series started with a completion to Andrew for 12 yards, on second down Jack Kane came up with a catch for 10 yards, third down was the same thing with Jack making another 10-yard catch, and this was followed by a first down catch from Maxwell for 5 yards. On first down Jackson found Andrew for a deep 35-yard throw for a touchdown. Again, Cougars had extra point troubles but still led Core 26-8.
Core’s offense couldn’t get things rolling again because of a great defensive effort by the Cougars. Gabe started it out with a tackle on first down. Then after a Davis QB pressure and great defense by Andrew to get a pass deflection (almost an interception), it was 4th down again for Core. Core couldn’t find a completion on 4th down and turned the ball over.
Sophomore and defensive specialist Davis Bradley got some time on offense. On first down, Jackson found Davis for a 25-yard reception. Then Jack got a catch for 20 yards and this was quickly followed by a 20 yard diving catch by Weston for a touchdown! Cougars again can’t get the extra point but lead Core 32-8
Core tried to get the ball down the field quickly and threw a deep ball on first down. The pass looked good, but Weston was there ready. Weston jumped with the Core receiver and made a excellent interception in traffic.
Weston wasn’t done with that play. On Cougar 2nd down after the turnover, Jackson threw a deep 40 yard bomb to Weston. Weston had to make a play on the ball so he dove and juggled the ball but never gave up and made the catch before he hit the ground. After that Gabe and Jackson connected on a short pass for another Cougar touchdown. For those keeping count that is 6 passing touchdowns on the day for Jackson Barnes.
Core came back on the field for one more series of offense. The Cougars defense wanted to keep the scoreless season against them alive. First down was an incomplete pass, then there was a penalty on Gabe for contact on the blitz, and Core capitalized on the penalty with a big completion for first down. Core tried for a big completion again, however, this time Andrew was there to make the interception and end the game!
Cougars are 3-0 with the tough part of their schedule (Howard, Tapestry, and Mill Springs) up and coming.
Stats:
Jackson Barnes 22-25 for 440 yards 6 TDs 1 int (38pts)
Maxwell Lagan 4 Catches for 98 yards 1 TD (6pts)
Jack Kane 4 Catches for 80 yards and Extra point (2pts)
Andrew Dorsey 4 catches for 107 yards 1 TD 1 Tackle 1 Int
Colin Barlow 5 catches for 65 yards 2 TD 2 tackles
Davis Bradley 1 catch 25 yards 1 Tackle
Weston 2 catches for 60 yards 1 TD 1 tackle 1 int
Gabe Belden 1 catch 5 yards 1 TD 4 tackles
Alyssa Briggs 2 tackles
Maxwell Rusert 2 sacks