Newton County football coach Bobby Bass continues to tell his football team to get better every week.
That’s what Bass saw this past week as the Cougars took a 39-6 win over homestanding Southeast Lauderdale on Friday night.
The Cougars are now 2-0 on the season and will host Union on Friday night.
In week one against Morton, Bass was disappointed in the effort despite getting the win.
“I felt like we played a lot better,” Bass said. “We still have some things to fix and clean up. But I saw the progress I needed to see and thought we played harder and with more effort. We have to continue to make the little increases every week to get to where we need to be by the end of the season.”
The Cougars dominated the first half. One their second possession of the first, the Cougars went 45 yards in seven plays as Carlois Walker scored on a 20-yard run. Lee Hill’s PAT failed and the Cougars led 6-0.
After forcing a three-and-out on defense, the Cougars got a big punt return from Colin Crowder to the Southeast 26. Two plays later, Damon Mapp hit Tyron Henderson on a 20-yard touchdown pass. The try for two failed and County led 12-0.
After forcing another Southeast punt, the Cougars went 62 yards in seven plays as Walker got free again with a 30-yard touchdown run. Hill booted the PAT and County led 19-0.
The Cougars got the ball right back on an interception by Grey Hale. Four plays later, Walker scored his third touchdown of the half on a 25-yard run. Hill’s PAT gave the Cougars a 26-0 lead.
The two teams traded turnovers when Cameron McDonald recovers a Southeast fumble. But the Cougars gave it right back as Mapp threw an interception that was returned 75 yard for a touchdown. The PAT was blocked and County led 25-6 going to the half.
“We knew we were going to have to shut their perimeter run game and that’s something we emphasized all week,” Bass said. “I thought our kids executed the game plan really well. We knew they were going to take some vertical shots and we were able to get some pressure on them. We had one interception and should have had two.”
The Cougars added two second-half scores to put the game away. The first came when Mapp scored on a 4-yard keeper to cap off a seven-play, 62-yard drive. Hill’s PAT gave County a 32-6 lead.
The last score came early in the fourth as Mapp hit Henderson on a 35-yard touchdown pass for the final margin.
The Cougars had 398 yards of total offense with 320 yards rushing and 78 passing. Walker had 178 yards on 17 carries and three TDs while May had 90 yards rushing on five carries. Mapp was 6-of-11 passing for 78 yards and two TDs with 24 yards rushing on five carries.
“That’s the good think about our offense right now is we’ve got two running backs that can run the football,” Bass said. “It keeps both of them fresh and Devyon gives us a good change of pace from Carlois. We still have some things to clean up in our run game. It’s just a matter of cleaning up those things and getting better every week. The kids have to look at our mistakes, learn from them and be catchable and play to get better every week.”
On defense, Colin Crowder had 13 tackles while Cam McDonald had 10 tackles and two fumble recoveries. Tylan McNichols had nine tackles and Koye Hardaway had seven stops. Miguel Evans had two tackles for loss while Grey Hale had an interception.
