The Cougar football team will host the Lord Botetourt Cavaliers Friday night. The Cougars will face a tough test against an always-strong Cavalier team.
The Cougars opened their 2024 with a tough loss to the Northside Vikings. After taking a commanding 21-0 lead by the end of the first quarter, the Vikings stormed back to score 28 unanswered points to leave Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium with the win, 28-21.
Pulaski County has unfortunately been hit with the injury bug already. Senior standout Chase Lawrence is currently out and potentially could be out for the season. His presence on offense will be missed, but his work on the defensive side of the ball is where he’ll be missed the most. Lawrence was an aggressive defender and a solid tackler. He remains active in the locker room and remains a team leader, even though he’s not in the starting lineup.
The Lord Botetourt Cavaliers finished last season with an overall record of 8-3. Their losses came at the hands of EC Glass (7-14), William Byrd (0-16), and William Byrd again in the second round of the Class 3, Region D playoffs (14-41). Led by Head Coach Jamie Harless, the Cavaliers are currently 1-1 this season. They dropped their season opener to GW Danville in an 8-11 overtime thriller. They defeated Blacksburg last week 62-3.
Coach Harless has been the leader of the Cavaliers since 2012, when he took over for former Head Coach Tater Benson. Harless has an overall record of 114-33 at Lord Botetourt, reaching the playoffs each year. He’s led his program to three State Championship game appearances, but they’ve yet to win one.
The Cougars lead the series with Northside five games to one, but the last matchup was the 20-48 loss last season on the road.
“They’ve got a tremendous program that they’ve worked hard to develop,” Coach Head Coach Cam Akers said. “Coach Harless does a great job and is always in the hunt for a title. His team is talented and has a combination of size and speed that will be a tough combination for anyone they go against. We’re going to continue working on building depth and getting a little better each week. We’ve had some issues, but we can’t sit back and let that end things for us. Our guys are continuing to work hard. We’ve got a lot of young players getting on the field this year. Eventually, that’s going to pay off for us.”
Kickoff Friday is set for 7 p.m. at Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium/Joel Hicks Field.
