Cougars take bite out of host Tigers

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August 25, 2012

Cougars take bite out of host Tigers

By Rocky Higginbotham / Special to The Star The Meridian Star The Meridian Star Sat Aug 25, 2012, 06:00 AM CDT

MERIDIAN —     Newton County fumbled on its second play from scrimmage Friday night, missed a pair of field goals and racked up 15 penalties in its 2012 season-opener.

   But otherwise, the Cougars were mighty impressive.

   Junior Jamoral Graham racked up 313 all-purpose yards and scored three touchdowns and freshman quarterback Jacob Edwards threw for 175 yards and two scores to lead the Cougars to a 35-14 win against homestanding Southeast Lauderdale.

   Newton County (1-0) had an open date last week but quickly shook off first-game jitters — scoring touchdowns on three straight first-half possessions to take control against Southeast (1-1).

   "It looks promising," first-year NCHS coach Jackie Williamson said. "You could tell it was our first game of the year ... we fumbled on that first drive, had too any penalties ... there were probably three times in the game that we should have scored that we didn't."

   That didn't stop Newton County from rolling up 435 yards of offense and controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football.

   "Having a game under their belt was important for them, but I'm real pleased," Williamson said. "We've got pretty good speed — you can't ever have enough of that — we've just got to get better conditioning and cut down on the mistakes. But I'm real proud of our guys."

   Michael Lee powered in from 11 yards out on Newton County's second drive to put the Cougars on the board; then Graham scored off left tackle on a fourth-and-goal play from a yard out early in the second quarter. Bryden Reed hit both point-after kicks for a 14-0 lead.

   Southeast, which managed just one first down on its first three drives, cut that deficit in half just 2 minutes later when Andrew Black hit Damion Willis behind the Newton County defense for a 70-yard touchdown pass. Andrew Bernard's kick made it 14-7 with 7:30 left before halftime.

   But three plays later, Newton County snatched the momentum right back, as Edwards hit Graham on their own 70-yard scoring pass to push it to 21-7.

   Edwards also had a 12-yard touchdown pass to De'Andre Wansley in the third quarter, and Graham finished off the scoring with a 1-yard run with 7:28 remaining in the game.

   Southeast's second touchdown came from Javaris Deloach — who had five impressive carries on the Tigers' first drive of the second half, including a 2-yard scoring plunge.

   Deloach finished with 81 yards on 21 carries. But 58 of those yards came on the third-quarter scoring drive, as Southeast's prized sophomore found the going tough one week after rolling up more than 200 yards in the Tigers' win over Clarkdale.

   "His picture was all over our locker room this week," Williamson said with a smile. "Hey, he's a good kid and a great player. But our guys knew we had to stop him if we were going to control the ball game."

   And control the game, Newton County did. The Cougars racked up 20 first downs and got 11-of-17 passing from Edwards.

   Graham, meanwhile, had a team-high 101 yards rushing on 11 carries. "Smokey" also caught three passes for 109 yards, returned two punts for 61 yards and returned an interception for 42 yards.

   Xavier Sharkey added 88 yards on 18 carries for the Cougars, while Joe Wansley had three receptions.

   Black was 9-of-20 passing for 173 yards, with Willis catching four balls for 86 yards and Jarrett Jenkins catching three for 72 yards.

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