On Friday the Pulaski County Cougars will begin the second season within the season as they open the River Ridge District slate by hosting the undefeated Christiansburg Blue Demons. The Cougars enter district action after completing arguably the toughest non-district slate in the history of the program. Last Friday, Pulaski County fell to Amherst 33-10 and will come into this game at (2-3) overall. Christiansburg has been dominating as the Blue Demons have rampaged to a (5-0) start under eighth year head coach Tim Cromer. Last week, the Blue Demons destroyed Patrick Henry 42-7 and Christiansburg has out-scored its foes (186-28) through five games. The Blue Demons have wins over Floyd County, GIles, Carroll County, Bassett, and Patrick Henry.

 

For Pulaski County and head coach Jack Turner, the tempo of the season now hangs on this River Ridge opener. The coaching staff believes that the teams the Cougars have played thus far will get them more than ready for what they will face in the league. But there is a growing concern about the overall confidence of the players after suffering back to back losses at home before hosting Christiansburg. In the second half against Amherst, Pulaski County drove 99 yards and took over at the line of scrimmage but by then the outcome of the game had been decided in the first half as the Lancers built a 26-0 cushion. One advantage that Pulaski County seemingly has this week is that Christiansburg and Amherst run the same basic jet motion offense out of their wing-t formation, so the defense will be very familiar with what the Blue Demons want to do offensively. But will the players bounce back and take advantage of the clean district slate that is ahead of them?

 

Christiansburg is being lead by a defense that has been the stingiest in the region at giving up points and total yardage. The Blue Demons have not allowed a point in their last nine quarters and no opponent has scored in multiple quarters in any of their five games. The unit is led by all region linebacker Zach Weller and the Blue Demons fly to the football out of their (3-5-3) defensive formation. Coach Cromer placed a strong emphasis on his defense heading into 2009 and the extra atttention has paid off big time as Christiansburg is allowing only (5.6) points per game and they have also posted two shutouts (Giles and Bassett).

 

And as always the offense is formidable, led by junior quarterback Stephen Wills and a rushing attack that has averaged 340 yards per game while piling up nearly forty points per game. Against Patrick Henry, the Blue Demons ran for 417 yards, led by tough fullback Greg Lee, and the speedy slot-backs Ryan Fisher and Zach Snell. The talented trio has piled up over 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns between them and the offense as a whole has seen eight different playes score the Blue Demons last 13 touchdowns. Wills has not needed to throw the football much but he has passed for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

 

Coach Turner believes that his team did not play badly against Amherst as he was very proud of the effort and that the team played hard for all 48 minutes. There was also only one penalty whistled against the Cougars which is a very good sign with nothing but district games over the next five weeks. The progress the offensive line has made is evident on film but the 97 total yards against Amherst skew the fact that the front five has gotten better each week. The defensive line was outstanding in the second half against the Lancers, recording a safety and holding the high octane rushing attack of Amherst to only seven points. A similiar effort will have to be the order of business this week against Christiansburg if the Cougars hope to end their two game slide and get River Ridge action off to a good start with a victory.

 

Although the Cougars lead the overall series (8-2), the teams have split their last four games with each team convincing in their victories. Christiansburg crushed the Cougars in 2005 (49-6) and then the Blue Demons won a offenisve thriller on a Saturday afternoon in Dublin (41-35). Pulaski County has won the last two meetings with a (39-19) win in 2007 and last season the Cougars won (28-7) in Christiansburg. There is no question that there will be a playoff atmosphere when these teams collide as positioning in the new extended playoff format has begun.

 

The kickoff is slated for 7:30 from Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium and radio coverage of the game will begin at 7:00 on 107 Country PSK (107.1 FM) and on-line at (wpsk107.com).