MURFREESBORO, Tennessee -- The #1 Clay-Chalkville Cougars clicked on all cylinders on offense and defense while defeating Blackman 38-7 in the inaugural Middle Tennessee Football Classic presented by Venture Express at MTSU's Floyd Stadium. Big plays and quick scores, we knew about the Cougars offense, but the defense had the inexperience but looked like a veteran unit shutting down the Blaze offense.
Clay-Chalkville (1-0) finished with 560 yards on offense and scored on its first four possessions of the game to take a 24-0 halftime lead and never looked back. "I thought our kids where sharp and came out ready to play, but we had a few penalties and I didn't like that," said Cougars Head coach Jerry Hood. "That no-name, terrible, awful defense played OK, I was proud of them.” You see the media has been raising questions about the Cougars defense over the summer and I think Coach Hood was trying to tell everyone that the defense was going to be good and were they ever.
The Blackman offense was held in check while the first team defense was on the field. The Blaze finished with just 171 total yards and a 70-yard run by Blackman came against the second team defense.
The Cougars opened the scoring first when Andrew Van Winkle kicked a 18-yard field goal with 7:01 in the first quarter. A big play pass from Ty Pigrome to Nico Collins for 45-yards setup the Clay-Chalkville field goal and a 3-0 lead. The running game hit one a quick score by Brandon Berry around the right side of the line and a big play by the offense. The 73-yard touchdown run with 2:29 left in the first quarter gave the Cougars a 10-0 lead.
The Cougars next two touchdowns came from Pigrome to WR T.J. Simmons. The first one was a 37-yard touchdown play and the second one was a 38-yard touchdown play, both second quarter scores. "T.J. is so big and strong, a difficult matchup for most teams," added Hood. "He had a good game today." With those scores, Clay-Chalkville led 24-0 at the half.
In the second half, a fumble recovery on the Blaze 21 by defensive lineman Zach James setup the Cougars next score. A Pigrome 6-yard touchdown run gave the Cougars a 31-0 lead with 3:44 left in the third quarter. With :27 left in the third quarter, Berry scored on a 27-yard touchdown run for the Cougars last score of the day. With the touchdown, the Cougars led 38-0.
The Blaze scored with 9:07 left in the game on a Miller Armstrong 1-yard run setup by backup running back Mater Teague with a 70-yard run. "We played hard for the entire game," said Blaze Head coach David Watson. "They are a very good football team."
For the Cougars, Pigrome was 17-of-27 passing for 297 yards with two touchdowns. Simmons had four receptions for 151 yards & two touchdowns. "We stepped up tonight," said Simmons. "Everyone thought our defense wasn't going to be very good but they proved everyone wrong." Berry had 130 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns.
