Now on to District!! The Cougars faced what is probably one of the most talented teams in TAPPS football in the last several years and came out with a 42-20 loss.
Frustrated by poor field position and turnovers, the Cougars never caught a break Friday night as the St. Pius Panthers upheld their #1 ranking by parlaying Cougar mistakes into easy points. Down by 14 in the first quarter, Jeff Abt hit Mike Ellisor for 34 yards to set up the Cougars on the Panthers 40. Two plays later, Matt Krob stung the Panthers from there, which is the longest score St. Pius has given up since 2005. Now down 21-6, the Black Swarm forced a punt and got the ball on the St. Pius 26. From there another pass from Abt to Ellisor set up the Cougs on the ten and 3 plays later another run from Matt Krob had the home team down 21-12. A late first-half score by the Panthers made it a 28-12 halftime game.
The Cougars didn't threaten again until the fourth quarter when Kyle Serres made a spectacular catch down the middle and added the 2 point conversion for a final of 42-20.
Finally done with a brutal non-district schedule, the Cougars can now focus on district play having faced some of the very best competition around. Hopefully, this experience will ready them for the playoffs if they take care of business in district.
