The Brookhaven Academy Cougars (6-2) made the long trek from Brookhaven to Farmerville, Louisiana for a non-division contest against the Union Christian Academy Lions (4-5).  The Cougars would take a 21-14 lead into the locker room at half, then use a strong effort in the second half, scoring 34 points to win going away, 55-28 Friday.

The Cougars won the coin toss and took the opening kick.  The Cougars turned the ball over on downs, but the Lions were forced to punt on their opening possession.  The Cougars took their second possession for an 87-yard TD drive capped off by a 48-yard Dawson Flowers to Cade Brown pass.  Freshman kicker Corey Case nailed the first of seven PATs and the Cougars led 7-0.

The Lions roared back with a 58-yard screen pass from Chris Evans to Nick Evans.  The two-point conversion failed and the Cougars led 7-6.

Junior Nick Ogden set the Cougars up with excellent field position on the kick return and Dawson Flowers scored on a run from 28 yards but a holding call nullified the touchdown. Flowers was intercepted on the next play, but the Lions would give it back to the Cougars on a fumble recovered by Gunar Brister. 

The Cougars took advantage of the turnover and used a 69-yard scoring drive that was capped off by a Flowers 1-yard plunge to give BA a 14-6 lead.  The Lions took their next possession 65 yards to pay dirt with Nick Evans covering the final 17 yards on the ground.  Evans would run the two-point conversion in and the game was tied at 14. 

The Cougars scored the last TD of the half when Flowers completed a 34-yard TD pass to Rob Johnson.

The second half started with the Lions receiving the kickoff and taking it 56 yards to the end zone with Nick Evans scoring from 48 yards out.  The Lions would tack on the two-point conversion and took their first lead at 22-21. 

BA would take control of the game with the Cougars scoring on their next three possessions.  Junior running back Nick Ogden would get the hat trick with an 8-yard run, a 9-yard run, and another 9-yard run.  One touchdown was set up by a Colin Waldrop fumble recovery. 

Flowers also snagged a pick six for the Cougars that put them up 48-22.

The Lions tacked on one more score with a 57-yard halfback bass from Josh Warren to Hunter.  The two-point conversion failed and the Cougars would lead by a score of 48-28. 

The Cougars took possession of the ball at their own 48 on a failed onside kick. The following drive covered 52 yards and ended with the eighth BA touchdown of the night. Luke Johnston would take it in from 3 yards out for the final Cougar score of the night.

Defensive back Gage Brown would intercept the last possession of the Lions and the Cougars would run the clock out.

Ogden led the way for the Cougars’ rushing attack with 22 carries for 137 yards.  Flowers would have five carries for 37 yards and Johnston had nine carries for 32 yards.  Flowers completed 12-of-19 pass attempts for 216 yards, one interception and one touchdown.  Cole Griffin led the receiving corp with seven catches for 124 yards and Cade Brown had three catches for 79 yards.

Gunar Brister led the Cougar defensive effort with nine tackles and a fumble recovery.  Flowers had four tackles and two interceptions.  Brown had an interception and Colin Waldrop had a fumble recovery.

“It was a long trip and we started a little slow,” said Cougar coach Ron Rushing. “We started to warm up after halftime and moved the ball up and down the field. They had some really good athletes that got some explosive plays on us, but we settled down and played solid defense in the second half.”

The Cougars travel to Liberty next Friday night to take on the Rebels of Amite School Center in their regular season finale.

Story by Ricky Myers