By: Railey Ayers

Friday night, the Crenshaw Cougars turned over the ball less than their opponent for the first time all season. However, a 41-6 loss put a damper on the should-be joyous stride toward reaching their goal.

“Our lack of execution and focus in the first half was more than we could overcome,” explained head coach Mike Sims.

Sims was correct. In fact, if each half were its own game, the Cougars would have won one of the matches.

In the second half, the Crenshaw defense kept the powerful chambers offense in check, shutting them out. Junior Gauge Cornelius led the team in tackles for the third week in a row. Senior quarterback Cole Roper was the only man on either side to reach the end zone during the half.

With the loss to the Rebels behind them, CCA looks ahead to the approaching two games, both region match ups, to make or break their season.

Crenshaw will travel to Abbeville Christian and host South Montgomery, respectively, in the final two games of their season.

The 3-4 Cougars are “down to the wire”- they must win at least one of the next two games to advance to postseason play.

“We have to revamp our faith in the process if we want to get anything done in the next two week,” Sims said.

“We’re averaging 300 yards rushing per game. When we’re putting up the stats that we are, we should be winning football games. It’s going to take a change in our mind set to lock it all into place.”

Friday, the Cougars, who had the most pre-season practices of any team in the Alabama Independent School Association (AISA), will travel to play the Abbeville Christian Generals, who have proudly held the football Class 1A state title for the previous two years.