Cougars hold off Black Bears

FINAL SCORE — Letcher County Central quarterback Charlie Banks went airborne as he scored the game-clinching touchdown in the Cougars' win over the Harlan County Black Bears in the Alumni Bowl at Ermine. (Photo by Chris Anderson) Letcher County Central is busy this week getting ready for a visit by Greenup County after opening the new high school football season with an exciting 42-32 win over the Harlan County Black Bears in the Alumni Bowl at Ermine.

Coming off a tremendous 11- 2 campaign in a 2007 season that ended in a loss to eventual state champion Fort Thomas Highlands, the Cougars, who are led by star quarterback Charlie Banks, hope to take a step farther this season with a barn-full of talent returning for Coach Hillard Howard.

Friday's game was the firstever for Harlan County, which was formed by the consolidation of Cumberland, Evarts and Cawood high schools. The Black Bears, which dressed about 90 players and brought a large crowd with them across Pine Mountain, are guided by former Rockcastle County coach Tom Larkey.

Keith Howard Friday night's action began with the Cougars' Banks kicking off to the Bears. After a trick reverse failed, the Bears started on their own 30 yard line, but after two big runs of 10 yards each the Cougar defense stiffened and dropped the Bears in the backfield on two straight plays highlighted by a sack of quarterback Greg Collins. The Bears were forced to punt, but the Cougars were unable to move and had to punt it right back.

After forcing another Bear punt, the Cougars started at their own 20. Disaster then struck when Harlan County's Glenn Roberts returned an interception of an errant pass by Charlie Banks and streaked to the endzone for six points. The point after by James Ball was good.

Trouble was just beginning for the Cougars, however, as the Bears' Robbie Halcomb recovered an on-side kick in Cougar territory. After Roberts broke loose for a 46-yard run to the Cougar 3 yard line, a procedure penalty took the ball back to the 8 yard line, from where Roberts scored three plays later to give the Bears a 13-0 lead.

The Cougars quickly got the message and started to click on offense. After the Bears tried another on-side kick, Letcher Central freshman Logan Johnson recovered the ball and got it to the Bear 42. After Banks connected with Dustin Brown on a 31-yard pass to the Bear 11 yard line, he then ran up the middle and over a Harlan County defensive back to give the Cougars their first touchdown of the season. The score stood at 13-7 after Zach Lucas kicked the extra point.

After the teams swapped punts on their next possessions, Harlan County decided to go for it on fourth down. Cougar junior McKenzie Smith would have none of that and hit Bear quarterback Zach Blanton like a missile to cause a fumble. The ball was picked up by Greg Collins, who sailed untouched to the endzone to tie the game at 13.

The Bears came right to take a 19-13 lead on a pass from Blanton to James Phillips for a 40 yard score with 5:11 left to play in the half. The Cougars answered on their next possession. A series of plays highlighted by a 32 yard run by Greg Collins and a pass to Smith put the ball inside the 10, Banks ran the ball in from five yards out. The point after gave the Cougars a 20-19 lead with 1:26 left in the second quarter. That was all the time the Bears needed as they marched down the field to score and take a 25-20 lead with five seconds left in the half.

The Cougars were known as a second-half team last season and the trend continued Friday as the Cougars opened the third quarter on offense and marched down for another score from Banks, this time on a 10-yard run. Caleb Frazier scored on a two-point conversion to give the Cougars a 28-25 lead. After forcing a punt by the Black Bears, Letcher Central quickly scored again when Banks hooked up with Craig Collier on a 32-year TD pass with 2:44 left in the third quarter. Another extra point by Lucas increased the lead to 35- 25, where it stood at the end of three quarters.

Harlan County came back to make it exciting in the fourth quarter. After a Cougar fumble and a big face mask penalty left the Black Bears deep in Cougar territory, quarterback Blanton scored on an eight-yard run to cut the lead to 35-32. With the momentum now shifted, the Bears forced a punt by the Cougars, but the Letcher Central defense stepped up to answer the call. After forcing the Black Bears to turn the ball over on downs, Charlie Banks added some insurance on an 11 yard score to nail down the 42-32 win.

The Cougars looked good at times, but you could see the firstgame jitters were obvious. The Bears have a much better team than people gave them credit for and they will definitely make some noise this season.

The Cougars got a huge game from Banks, who ran for 81 yards, including four touchdowns, and passed for 173 yards and another TD. Even though Letcher Central's defense gave up 32 points, it looked really good at times.

Greenup County Musketeers enter Friday's game with a record of 0-1, having lost to Russell by a score of 49-13.