The Cougars of Copper Basin took on the Hawks of Grace Baptist Academy Friday night, September 28, 2012. The Cougars came away with the victory on Homecoming, winning 28-14.On Grace Academy’s first possession of the series, the Hawks marched right down the field and scored. This looked like it would develop into a long night for the hometown Cougars.

The Cougars took the ensuing kickoff from the Hawks and started a drive of their own, but it resulted in a Cougar punt.

Mental errors on the part of Grace caused them to punt the ball back to Copper Basin, and the Cougars made the most of this possession.

Dylan Boggs passes the ball to Stephen Spargo for a 20 yard gain and handed the ball off to Denzell Brown for seven yards to end the first quarter.

To start the second quarter, Brown carried the ball twice for 17 and 13 yards respectively to get the Cougars in the red zone. A bad snap over Boggs’ head backed the team up 10 yards. A 17 yard pass put the Cougars on the three yard line. Boggs pitched the ball to Brown, who punched it in to get his Cougars on the board. A blocked extra point resulted in Grace holding the lead at 7-6.

After the teams exchanged punts, the Cougars looked to take the lead before the half. Boggs passed the ball to Bryce Nicholson who took it 40 yards for the score. Instead of trying another extra point, the Cougars decided to go for two. Boggs found Nicholson all alone in the back of the end zone and put the Cougars up 14-7.

An ill-advised screen pass by the cougars resulted in a Grace interception. The Hawks took this opportunity to tie the game before the half as they scored a touchdown with 20.9 seconds left.

Coming out of halftime, Boggs completed a long third down pass to Stephen Spargo. On first down, he completed another pass to Spargo for eight yards. Bryce Nicholson took the hand off and gained 40 yards for the Cougars. The Cougars stalled on the drive and missed a field goal attempt to extend their lead.

A staunch Cougar defense forced the Hawks to punt and the Cougars made the most of this opportunity after a couple of QB keepers and a 71 yard touchdown pass to Spargo with 2:55 left in the third quarter. Copper Basin led the game 21-14.

A couple of scares by the Grace Academy Hawks were averted by interceptions from Aaron English and Bryce Nicholson and fumble recoveries by Dakota Sosebee and Chris Phelan.

Denzell Brown carried the ball four times for a combined 17 yards to get the Cougars into the end zone on the last “Basin” scoring drive, allowing the Cougars to end the game with a 28-14 win.