Chattahoochee makes quick exit from playoffs

First the good news.

The Grayson Rams got zero yards passing against the Chattahoochee Cougars Friday night at Britt-Moody Field in Loganville.

The bad news is The Rams did not throw a pass in the entire game. They didn't have to. Using a punishing running attack, Grayson rolled up 34 unanswered points in an easy 34-0 first round playoff win over Chattahoochee.

"The outcome of this game was never in doubt, I didn't think once the game got started," said Cougar Head Coach Terry Crowder, after the dust had cleared.

It was the way things started that brought Crowder to that point of view.

The game was only 15 seconds old when Grayson took a 7-0 lead thanks to junior Austin Stanley's 99-yard opening kickoff return. That turned out to be all the points the Rams would need to advance to the second round of the playoffs. Just for good measure they added 24 more, and used a devastating defense to keep the Cougars scoreless for the first time this season.

How dominant was the Rams defense?

Chattahoochee never got past the Grayson 36 yard line in the first half. They only crossed the 50 once in the second half, making it to the Rams 17 with just seconds left in the game. Any hopes of avoiding a shutout were crushed when Grayson's Nick Crockett intercepted a Brendan Cross pass to end any hope of scoring.

The Cougars end the 2007 season with an 8-3 record, 5th best in the school's history. For the seniors, they achieved a sense of accomplishment during their years at Chattahoochee.

"I'm awful proud of these seniors," said Crowder. "They were 1-9 as freshmen, and to come back and have a season, and beat some people like we did, I feel very proud of them."

The season did have some significant highlights. There were upset wins over highly ranked Camden County and Roswell, a trouncing of arch-rival Northview, and in week eight of the season the Cougars cracked the state's Top Ten with a number nine ranking.

When asked what he was going to tell his team as he headed to the locker room, Crowder said he was going to talk about all the positives the Cougars accomplished during the year.

"I'm going to talk about how good we played all year and that we got beat by a good football team, and how you've got to learn and take it into next year."

For junior quarterback Brendan Cross, and the rest of the Cougar underclassmen, next year can't come soon enough.