Maroon Tide Sinks Pirates 28-9
McDougle's Hat Trick Paces Picayune
by Carey Meitzler
The community of Pass Christian has faced a lot of tough days since Hurricane Katrina rolled ashore on August 29th and decimated
their town, but their football team was truly a bright spot for them despite losing 28-9 to the Picayune Maroon Tide in a division
8-4A game played at Picayune.
After an exchange of punts to open the game, the Pirates were facing fourth down and one yard to go at the Picayune 37 yard line.
Pass Christian's Jonathan Willis took an inside handoff on a wingback reverse and out ran the Maroon Tide secondary for the score.
The point after touchdown attempt was foiled by a bad snap and the Pirates led 6-0 with 3:46 to play in the first quarter.
Picayune scored late in the quarter when Courtney McDougle scored from 47 yards out on a reverse with :24 left. Erveng Gonzalez
converted the first of four PATs on the night for a 7-6 lead.
After holding the Pirates on their next possession, the Tide called McDougle's number once again on a reverse play and the results
looked like a carbon copy of his earlier touchdown as he raced in from 47 yards with 7:05 left in the second quarter.
Photo courtesy of John Young
Courtney McDougle's backside became a familiar
site for the Pirates defense as he scored 3 times on
4 rushing attempts.
Late in the quarter, Picayune fumbled the ball at their own 22 yard line and Pass Christian took advantage of the turnover when
Willis kicked a 27 yard field goal with :09 left before halftime to make the score 14-9.
Picayune scored on their first possession of the second half on Justin Berry's one yard run that capped off a 10 play 65 yard drive
that took almost six minutes off the clock. Berry, who finished with 82 yards on 17 carries for the game, ran the ball six of the ten
plays on the drive.
Late in the third quarter, Pass Christian had a golden opportunity to get back in the game when they blocked a Maroon Tide punt
and took over at the Picayune 40 yard line. But Picayune's defense held the Pirates on three downs as the Tide's Brent Acker,
Glen Agnelly, and Erich Bochman recorded tackles for loss on three consecutive plays including a 13 yard loss on third down that
forced Pass Christian to kick the ball back to Picayune.
Photo courtesy of John Young
Maroon Tide linebacker Brent Acker (21) upends Pass Christian's
Jonathan Willis.
The Tide wasted little time in putting their final points on the board as McDougle went in from 51 yards out on the fifth play of the
possession. Gonzalez's extra point closed out the scoring with 9:02 left in the game. McDougle accumulated 153 yards on 4 runs.
Pass Christian came back on their next set of downs and moved the ball deep inside Tide territory, but Drew Cole intercepted a pass
at the Tide 23 yard line and Picayune ran out the clock to record the win.
Head coach Dodd Lee had praise for the Pirates.
"They planned for us and did a good job. I thought we were a little flat to start with and we might could have done some more
things against them, but I wanted us to be tough and try to run the ball right at 'em. I want us to be tough before we do all the
other things."
Picayune's fans "passed the hat" before and during the game to collect money to assist the Pirates in expenses they have incurred due
to Hurricane Katrina. The Picayune fans collected over $2,000.00 and presented it to the Pirates after the game.
"It says a lot about our town. I feel better about our town since Katrina than I probably did before. I think (collection) that's
wonderful," said Lee.
Next week Picayune (2-3, 2-0) will travel to play Long Beach, who defeated Pearl River Central 34-14 on Friday night.
Pass Christian (1-3, 0-2) will play at Bay High.