The Copper Basin High School Cougars football team scored it’s first points of the 2025 season against Hayesville at home September 5. The Cougars played solid defense early, Hayesville took control offensively for a bit, then the Basin defense stepped up in a big way, but wasn’t able to overcome the deficit. The Cougars were defeated 41-8.
“The kids came out and showed a lot of energy and did exactly what our game plan was,” said Cougar head coach Brett Graves. With 20 seniors on Hayesville’s team, Graves was happy with how the team played overall in light of the young team the Cougars were fielding.
Basin’s only score came at the 8:43 mark in the third quarter. At 8:53, senior Nathan Spencer caught the kickoff at the Basin 10 yard line, ran to his right and made a Hayesville tackler miss, before cutting back to the left to avoid the Hayesville kicker and sprinting for the end zone. The run was for 90 yards. The two-point conversion followed from AJ Pero to make the score 34-8.
“Nate has been our returner for the past couple years now. He’s always been close to breaking one free,” said Graves.
Hayesville led 27-0 at the half, and scored two more times early in the third quarter. The Cougar defense stepped up late in the third quarter with the leadership and solid tackling of seniors Cooper Floyd and Drew Crowder. Nick Bird, Easten Dockery, Trenton Davis, Pero, Darrius Harris, Wyatt Holder, Dylan Beaver and Logan Cochran also were key defenders. Defensively, Spencer covered Hayesville’s best receiver Ben Bethel and almost intercepted a pass.
“We didn’t change any personnel, we just made a few adjustments to what gap we were running up in. We did a great job of exploiting C-gap (the ones outside the offensive tackles),” said Graves.
Basin has a few solid offensive drives. Led by new quarterback Dawson Pittman, Basin had a drive in the fourth quarter of 44 total yards with five runs from Crowder and two from Pittman totaling 29 yards. Pittman threw to Crowder for a 15-yard reception. Key blocking from Basin came from lineman Davis, Harris and Waters. The drive was stopped due to the end of regulation.
Graves said Pittman is a tough kid. “Hayesville’s defensive line is really good. We felt like if we could get through that defensive line, we had a chance. He did a good job of keeping us going.”
Crowder led offensively with nine carries for 48 yards. He caught four passes for 33 yards. Defensively, Crowder had five tackles. Bird had four tackles and Beaver had three tackles. Cochran and Pero had two each and Holder, Floyd and Dockery had one each. Floyd recovered a Hayesville fumble in the game.
“I feel confident going into our next set of games. I feel like we have grown up as a team,” said Graves.
Copper Basin next plays at Rosman September 12 at 7:30 p.m., Asheville Christian School September 19, and homecoming is September 26 at Copper Basin.