BA Cougars blast Silliman in season opener
Published 6:00 pm Sunday, August 22, 2010
CLINTON, La. — With all of the high expectations that havesurrounded the Brookhaven Academy Cougars and the 2010 season, headcoach Herbert Davis just wanted his team to play well in the seasondebut against Silliman Institute. The Cougars did play well; sowell in fact, that the starting offense and defense didn’t see thefield after the first half.
Brookhaven thumped the Wildcats from Clinton, La 56-20 Friday nightin the season opener for both schools and extended its win streakto 16 games. Silliman, which ended last season with a 34-14playoff
loss to the Cougars, fell to Brookhaven for the second time in asmany games.
The Cougars wasted little time in getting things going offensively.On their second series, it took just three plays to find the endzone as Chandler Rogers connected with Bubba Keene on a 22-yardstrike with 8:14 left in the first quarter. Tyler Trout added thefirst of his 7 extra points on the night, giving the visitors a 7-0lead.
Less than three minutes later, Jennings Mills found paydirt for theCougars on a 2-yard run, pushing the lead to 14-0 with 5:24 left inthe first.
From that point on, the Cougars scored at will. Mills scored onruns of 5, 13, and 61 yards before the intermission and Rogersconnected with Jeff Rushing on a 12-yard strike and Sidney Chaffinon a 34-yard bomb pushed the Cougar lead to 49-14 at thehalf.
Silliman quarterback Jason Palermo connected with J.Q. Austin onpasses of 43 and 20 yards to give the Wildcats their only scores ofthe half.
Davis took advantage of the cushion and played reserves for theremainder of the game. The only other points of the game came inthe fourth quarter as Gage Posey scored on a 10-yard run. BubbaKeene added the extra point for a 56-14 Brookhaven lead with 10:38left in the game.
Silliman’s final score came on the last play of the game as Palermoscored on a two yard run.
“It was good to get our subs in and get them some experience earlyin the season.” said Davis. “Hopefully it will help give us somedepth as the season goes on. But at the same time, we need to getour starters more time in game situations before they start todevelop bad habits.
“Not every game we play is going to be like this so we have to beable to execute and score in tougher situations.”
Mills led the Brookhaven offense with 13 carries for 161 yards andfour touchdowns. Rogers completed 3 of his 6 pass attempts for 68yards and three scores. Will Lucas was the leading receiver, with 2catches for 39 yards.
On defense, Mark Rushing led the Cougars with 7 tackles and aninterception. C.J. Duckworth followed with 6 stops. Bailey Hodge,Jeff Rushing, and Alan Michael Allred each made five
stops apiece. Connor Bairfield recovered a fumble.
Palermo led the Silliman offense, completing 12 of his 29 passattempts for 170 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted once.Austin was the leading receiver with 2 catches for 63 yards and twoscores.
Brookhaven returns home to host archrival Copiah Academy Fridaynight in a non-district match up. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at R.M.”Red” Stuard” Field.