By John Spargo
On a chilly night in Copperhill, the Copper Basin Cougars hosted the Gordonsville Tigers in the first round of the TSSAA Class A State Playoffs Friday, November 8. It was the Cougars’ first playoff appearance since 2017, and the first home playoff game since 2014.
The Tigers received the opening kickoff and grinded out a nine-play drive that consumed 5:01 of the opening quarter. From the Cougar two-yard line, the visitors took an early 6-0 lead on a two yard plunge for a touchdown with 6:59 left in the opening period. The extra point was no good.
After a Timothy Fair kickoff return to the Basin 22-yard line, quarterback Bryson Grabowski connected with Chase Mickens for five yards, but the next two plays lost 10 yards, forcing the Cougars to give the ball back to Gordonsville.
After the punt, the Tigers started at the Basin 35-yard line.
After a quick 11-yard completion, penalties hampered the Tiger drive.
After a 17-yard run to the Cougar 31-yard line, the defense bowed its neck on a fourth down and five and the Tigers could not convert, giving the ball back to Copper Basin at their own 26-yard line.
A bad snap on first down put the Cougars in a second and long, but Mickens caught another Grabowski pass, this one for 24 yards, but the Cougars still ended the drive in a punt.
Gordonsville took over at Basin’s 45-yard line, but again the defense came up with a big stop on fourth down.
Basin took over at their own 48-yard line with under 10 minutes to go in the second quarter.
A 14-yard completion to Chance Bailey and a 13-yard Grabowski scramble moved the ball to the Tiger 13-yard line. The redzone drize brought no points however, as it ended with a Gordonsville interception.
The Tigers moved the ball into Basin territory but Mickens made a huge play by picking off a Tiger pass and ran it back to the Gordonsville 30-yard line with 2:12 to go before halftime.
A sack was followed by a personal foul on the Tigers and on second and seven from the Tiger’s 31-yard line, Grabowski ripped a 24-yard pass to Mickens, moving the ball to the seven yard line.
On the next play, Grabowski found Bailey for a seven yard touchdown with 40 seconds left before the break. The two-point conversion was no good and the first half came to a close with a score of 6-6.
The Cougars received the second half kickoff and started the drive at their own 42-yard line. After a quick completion to Mickens, the Tigers made the half’s first big play, picking off a Cougar pass at their own 36-yard line with 9:53 to go in the third quarter. Five plays moved the ball to the Basin 27-yard line and on the sixth play of the drive, the Tigers found the end zone, grabbing the lead at 12-6. The two-point conversion was good and the Tigers had a 14-6 lead with 7:01 to go in the period.
The Cougars started their next drive after the kickoff at their own 36-yard line. After a holding penalty on the Cougars, Grabowski had a 20 yard gallop that moved the ball out to the Basin 48. On the next play the junior quarterback suffered a vicious hit and an intentional grounding call. The Cougars then faced third and long as sophomore quarterback Joe Boggs hit Mickens for an 18-yard gain, but the Cougars were forced to punt the ball back with less than four minutes left in the quarter. After moving the ball to the Cougar eight yard line, Gordonsville turned the ball over as cornerback Logan Burkett snatched a Tiger pass and returned it out to the 45 yard line with 36 seconds left in the third quarter. Bailey ripped off a big run to the Tiger 25-yard line and pass to Dawson Worthy set the Cougars up at the Gordonsville three yard line. An incompletion and two runs lost two yards and on fourth and goal from the five, another pass fell incomplete, ending the drive and giving the ball back to Gordonsville with 9:42 left in the football game. The Tigers relied on it’s stout running game and proceeded to march on a 12-play drive, capping it off with a three yard touchdown run with 1:23 left in the game, to make the score 20-6. The two-point conversion failed. The Cougars tried to get a drive together but after a pass completion to A.J, Miles, the clock ran out and Gordonsville headed home with a hard fought 20-6 win.
Even with the loss, the Cougars had a huge turnaround in 2019, going from 1-9 in 2018, to 6-5 and hosted a playoff game.
Grabowski finished the night going 10-13 for 118 yards passing, while adding 28 rushing yards on four carries. Bailey finished the night with five carries for 42 yards. Mickens finished with seven catches for 90 yards. Worthy had one catch for 26 yards and Bailey had three for 20-yards and a touchdown. Boggs was one for three for 18 yards passing.
On defense, Mickens lead the way with seven solo tackles to go with eight assists. Timothy Fair had 12 total stops and Sebastian Baliles finished with eight, including a tackle for loss. Boggs had nine total tackles and Bailey contributed five. Addison Hook finished the game with six total stops for the Cougars.
Head Coach Chad Grabowski was obviously disappointed in the outcome, but was still proud of the growth and the effort of his team this season saying, “I’m very proud of these boys and how hard they have worked this year to get this far. We have gone from 1-9 and missing the playoffs, to 6-5 and became the Region runner-ups this year. I am extremely proud of, and appreciate the coaches for all their hard work. We have a great group of seniors that we are going to deeply miss and will do everything in our power to help them in anyway to move forward in their path. We will take some time off for the holidays and then get back to work to prepare for a year that has a chance to be very special.
With 31 returning players and more to come out, we look to make a serious run at the Region and State Title.
That’s our goal and we won’t settle for anything less. I love this team and community, and can’t wait to bring them more success for many years to come.”