david@wkyk.com
yanceysports.com
Using a balanced offensive attack and a stingy defense the Mountain Heritage JV football team had its way with North Buncombe on a short road trip to Flat Creek Thursday night.
The Cougars scored touchdowns on the ground, through the air and with their defense in the 28-6 non-conference win that was a tune-up for the start of Western Highlands Conference play this week at Hendersonville.Using a balanced offensive attack and a stingy defense the Mountain Heritage JV football team had its way with North Buncombe on a short road trip to Flat Creek Thursday night.
The Cougars (2-1) took their first possession of the game and drove down field 67 yards to score and grab the upper hand early.
The big play on the opening drive was a 36 yard hook up between quarterback Avery Austin and wide receiver EJ Ochoa on the third play of the game.
A strong run by Joey Brown set up a four yard Ryan Meadows TD jaunt. The two point pass from Avery to Ochoa was batted away and Heritage held a 6-0 advantage with 7 and a half minutes still remaining to be played in the first quarter.
After the Cougar-D forced the Hawks three and out on their first offensive series, Heritage used the remaining time on the first quarter clock to move 80 yards and pad their lead with a time consuming drive.
Utilizing the running of Joey Brown and the pass and catch duo of Austin Avery and EJ Ochoa, the Cougars advanced methodically down field but faced 4th down and 22 at the North 48 yard line.
No worry, Avery rolled out and fired a perfect strike to a galloping Dalton Cannon who caught the ball and made a couple of nifty moves to avoid tacklers on his way to the 80 yard score.
Austin connected with Ryan Meadows and Heritage enjoyed a 14-0 advantage early in the second quarter.
The Cougar defense then got into the act when cornerback Job Kennedy came away with an interception to give the ball back to Heritage offense at the Cougar 22.
From there the Cougars strung together eight plays to reach the end zone on a ten yard keeper by Avery around the left side for a 20-0 Heritage lead with three minutes to play until halftime.
EJ Ochoa almost tacked on another score for the Cougars with less than a minute left until the break when he stepped in front of a North pass and picked it off and returned the ball to the Hawk 24 before he was caught from behind as time expired.
The Black Hawks came out of the dressing room and put a scare in the Cougars by quickly scoring a touchdown and two point conversion to trim the lead to 12 points early in the third quarter.
But the Cougar defense was able regain control of the line of scrimmage and tack another score on the board for safe measure.
Avery Austin continued to impress the crowd with his arm strength and accuracy when he spotted EJ Ochoa open again for a touchdown toss that covered 63 yards to put the Cougars up 26-8 and drive the final nails in the Hawk coffin early in the 4th quarter.
The Cougars will begin the defense of their WHC title from a year ago this Thursday when they travel to Hendersonville for a 7 p.m. contest with the always tough Bearcats.
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