Cougar Football ends 7-on-7 season on high note with pair of wins

cougar-football-at-breck
cougar-football-at-breck

In the final 7-on-7 football scrimmages of the preseason, the Grayson County Cougars picked up a pair of wins and a tie to close on a high note.

“Probably our best day of 7-on-7,” said head coach Bryan Jones. “It was kind of a good way to end this little run that we had of five different nights. I felt pretty good with how we finished today.”

Nelson County

In a matchup between two former district rivals, Grayson County dominated from the first whistle.

After the Cardinals went four-and-out to start, the Cougars turned in a six-play drive that ended in a two-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Tomes to jump out to an early 6-0 lead.

Nelson County’s offense found a rhythm on their second drive. Four consecutive completions brought the ball to the 15-yard line. The next pass saw the Cardinal quarterback attempt a throw to the back pylon, but instead found the hands of Grayson County’s Michael Wood for an interception.

Another lengthy drive for the Cougars saw Owen Bratcher find the goal line to give them a 12-0 lead.

The Cou1gar defense was the story in this game. The Cardinals did not get close to scoring again until their final drive when Grayson subbed in their JV defense halfway through the drive.

On their final drive of the game, Bratcher added a second touchdown to clinch what was an 18-6 victory in game one for the Cougars.

“Both sides of the ball played better,” said Jones. “Against them, last time we missed several throws and I thought today that Kaylor (Decker) did a better job.”

Holy Cross (Louisville)

Last week, Holy Cross and Grayson County played an exciting 7-on-7 game with the maroon Cougars scoring two touchdowns late to take a 24-12 advantage.

Revenge was on the mind of the orange Cougars, but it was Holy Cross who struck first. They completed three consecutive passes, capped off by a 23-yard touchdown, to take an early 6-0 lead.

On their first possession, Grayson went four and out after gaining only five yards.

From there, it was all GCHS. The defense forced two turnover-on-downs and had a Chandler McCrady interception to keep HC out of the endzone for the remainder of the game.

Offensively, the blue and orange had an 8-yard touchdown from Jeren VanMeter, a 7-yard catch from Hunter Tomes, and a 6-yard touchdown from Michael Wood to push them to an 18-6 victory.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a lot last time we played them,” said Jones. “We just did a better job of running our routes and hitting open guys.”

Breckinridge County

The Cougars and Tigers were not originally scheduled to play one another, but due to Meade County dropping out of the competition, the two rivals decided to match up.

With temperatures in the upper-80s, fatigue clearly began to set in on both sides. The Tigers started fast by scoring a 33-yard touchdown on their first drive to take an early 6-0 advantage.

The Grayson County offense put together an 8-play drive to get inside the 20 but had incompletions on three of their final four passes to turn the ball over on downs.

The Tigers answered quickly with a 29-yard touchdown to give them a 12-0 lead.

The next possession saw the Cougars get back to their rhythm and turn in a seven-play drive that ended with an Owen Bratcher touchdown.

Breckinridge County next attempted a wheel route down the far sideline, but sophomore Jeren VanMeter came from the safety position to intercept the pass.

Momentum carried Grayson County into a game-tying touchdown by Michael Wood to finalize the game as a 12-12 tie.

“We finished good on that interception by Jeren (VanMeter),” added Jones. “To see the kids compete (and score on the last drive) was nice.”


With the performance, the Cougars finished the 7-on-7 preseason with a record of 6-3-4.

Now, their attention turns towards a pair of traditional scrimmages. They will host Hancock County on August 6 at 6:30 pm before traveling to Bethlehem on August 13 at 6:00 pm.

“Hancock was a heck of a team last year,” said Jones. “It’ll be a good test for us. It’ll just be nice to see us get out there and see some of the things that we’ve been trying to work on this offseason.”

Grayson County will open the regular season on August 20 at Edmonson County.

By Sam Gormley, Play-By-Play Announcer/Local Sports
Reach Sam at sam@k105.com