OCTOBER 5, 2012 – WEST ALEXANDRIA
A great measuring stick for a football team is how well it handles adversity and judging by Covington’s performance in a mud bath at Twin Valley South, the Buccs are not quite where they would like to be.
“Sloppy,” emphasized Covington coach Dave Miller. “And it wasn’t only the field conditions. We made a lot of mistakes.”
Even with a 55-14 victory over Twin Valley South, the Buccaneers had some difficulty shutting down the Panthers’ spread offense in the first quarter, which resulted in 115 yards and a touchdown in the opening frame for the Panthers.
“We didn’t play well in the first half,” Miller said. “We didn’t come out ready to play Covington football for 48 minutes. Sure, the field conditions weren’t the best, but that shouldn’t matter.”
Fortunately, the Buccaneer offense continued to roll as the Buccs took the opening possession of the game the length of the field for the score on a two-yard run by quarterback Trent Tobias.
Twin Valley South responded with an impressive drive of its own. After a nice kickoff return near midfield, the Panthers chewed up chunks of yardage and capped the effort with a 20-yard jaunt by sophomore quarterback Wes Cole.
The point-after attempt was off the mark, leaving the score 7-6 in favor of Covington.
But the celebration for South lasted just one play as A.J. Ouellette took the ensuing kick 80 yards for the score and a 14-6 Buccaneer lead.
As the first quarter came to a close, Twin Valley South was in scoring position once again inside the Covington twenty. The Buccaneer defense was up to the task, however, as Troy Cron picked off a Panther pass in the end zone.
And on the very next play Ouellette raced down the Panther sideline for an 80-yard touchdown run to push the Covington lead to 21-6.
Covington’s defense then picked up its game and forced a Panther punt. Ouellette followed by breaking loose again from 50 yards away to increase the margin to 28-6.
After another Buccaneer defensive stand gave the ball back to the Covington offense, Troy Cron scored on a 25-yard run with just over 3:00 to go in the half.
Covington had one more chance to score before the break, but a long touchdown run by Cron was nullified due to a holding penalty.
“I wasn’t pleased with our effort overall in the first half,” said Miller. “I felt we we came out flat. I thought we gave a better effort in the second half, though.”
After shutting the Panthers down to start the second half, Covington went to work and scored on a 17-yard pass from Trent Tobias to Kyler Deeter.
Shortly thereafter, Dalton Bordelon blocked a Panther punt and Ouellette plowed in from seven yards out for his fourth touchdown of the night as the starters went to the bench in favor of the junior varsity squad.
And the youngsters came through with a nicely executed drive that was capped by a 6-yard run by Brandon Magee to push the Covington margin to 55-6.
Twin Valley South did score in the waning moments, but Covington walked off the field at 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the CCC.
“We have a lot of work to do,” summarized Miller after a cold, rainy evening of football. “We’re not there yet.”
Next week the Buccs host National Trail, who is 6-1 overall and 5-1 in the Cross County Conference.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
BUCCS – 14 – 21 – 14 – 7 = 55
PANTHERS – 6 – 0 – 0 – 8 = 14
SCORING SUMMARY:
COV: Trent Tobias 2 yard run (AJ Ouellette kick good)
TVS: Wes Cole 20 yard run (PAT failed)
COV: AJ Ouellette 80 yard kick return (Ouellette kick good)
COV: AJ Ouellette 80 yard run (Ouellette kick good)
COV: AJ Ouellette 50 yard run (Ouellette kick good)
COV: Troy Cron 25 yard run (Ouellete kick good)
COV: Trent Tobias 17 yard pass to Kyler Deeter (kick failed)
COV: AJ Ouellette 7 yard run (Ouellette kick good)
COV: Brandon McGee 6 yard run (Cole Owens kick good)
TVS: Wes Cole 4 yard run (Wysong run good)
