Their first three games of the season gave very little indication of what was in store for the Logan County Middle School Eighth Grade Cougars.
Yet Saturday—seven straight wins later, Coach Todd Adler’s team will head north to face T.K. Stone in the second round of the Kentucky Middle Schools Association football playoffs.
They earned that berth by beating visiting Franklin-Simpson 24-8 in last week’s first round.
A look back shows those three opening losses were by narrow margins—26-24 to Warren East, 14-12 to Christian County and 20-14 to Hopkinsville, by a total of 10 points.
The seven wins that ensued were a different story. The young Cougars have won those seven by 168 points, an average of a 24-point margin per win.
The first three were routs—two over Todd County by 40-0 and 40-8 with the third 36-0 over Russellville. That’s a total of 116-8 against their closest rivals.
The next three were a little closer. The Cougars beat Trigg County 30-30, Moss 36-12 and Russellville for a second time 38-28.
The playoff win over Franklin was at home, since Logan was a higher seed.
“We have a group of very special young men. They work hard each and every day to get better,” says Adler, who is assisted by Derek Jackson, Josh Osborne, Mark Brown and Jerrad Taylor.
“We have come a long way since the beginning of the season; this team is eager to learn and continue to put in the work to play the game of football at a high level. Our coaching staff not only looks forward to seeing their hard work put to the test as we continue the playoffs, but as these young men enter their high school careers.”
Some regular season stats for the Cougars:
Tyler Ezell QB/DB: Offense- 947 yards rushing 21 td’s, 708 yards passing 6 TDs; Defense- 24 tackles 6 interceptions
Gary Hardy RB/LB: Offense- 300 yards rushing 2 TDs; Defense- 43 tackles, 13 for a loss, 3 sacks
Carson Bradley FB/LB: Offense- 250 yards rushing, 2 TDs; Defense-23 tackles, 6 for a loss
Ashton Gregory RB/DB: Offense- 100 yards rushing, 3 TDs; Defense- 22 tackles, 2 interceptions
Nathaniel Vick WR/DE: Offense- 400 yards receiving, 75 rushing yards, 3 TDs; Defense- 22 tackles, 3 for a loss, 2 forced fumbles, 5 fumble recoveries
Devon Barnes WR/DL-offense- 120 yards receiving, 90 rushing yards, 1 TD; Defense- 45 tackles, 22 for a loss, 6 sacks, 9 forced fumbles
Zack Yates FB/LB: Offense- 75 yards rushing, 1 TD; Defense- 22 tackles
Jarrett Sears RB/DB: Offense- 101 yards rushing, 63 yards receiving, 2 TDs; Defense- 20 tackles, 2 interceptions
Other team members who are eighth graders are Hunter Henbest, Dallas Simmons, Ethan Haley, Korbin Scruggs, James Green, Gabriel Forgy, Noah Rust, Camron Munday, Chris Gouy, Lucas Taylor, Dakota Vanderpool, Billy Knight, Derrick Deen, Payton Montgomery, Dylan Monroe, Joshua Durham and Alton Hallman.
Yates is a seventh grader. Other seventh graders are Jacob Moore, Neil Coursey, Ashton George, Matthew Robertson, Corbin Chick, Thomas Kash, Cole Baker, Anthony Dunn, Lewis Berry, Colton Hunt, Jonah Oliver, Logan Gibson, Luke Brown, Ezra McIntosh, Aaron Hinton, Braxton Baptiste, Conner Roberts, Kaleb Ferguson, Kamden Coursey, Cody Dulworth, Sam Brown, Josh Henderson and Maurice Gordon.