CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Clarksville Academy football hosted Donelson Christian Academy, the defending Division II-A state champions, on Friday.
Coming into the matchup the Cougars knew they had their hands full against a talented Wildcat team. Clarksville Academy was overwhelmed early on in the matchup, and eventually lost the game 6-47.
The Cougars’ inability to stop the run on defense and limit mistakes on offense led to their demise. But even after losing by a large margin, there were plenty of positive takeaways.
Clarksville Academy was able to stretch the field with big plays. It started with Cougars quarterback DJ Merriweather going to work in the backfield.
Merriweather was electric when given time and made some incredible runs and throws during the game. He found his top two targets in Jacques Wyatt and Cooper Wallace. The two wide receivers made phenomenal plays down the field. Combined, they had 5 catches that extended at least 20 or more yards during the contest.
Clarksville Academy shut down throwing lanes outside the numbers. They made numerous plays on the ball that added up to multitude of pass deflections and an interception at the line of scrimmage as well.
Coaches corner
“This process is part of building a program.” said Clarksville Academy Head Coach Scott Murray. “One thing our guys don’t understand is that when you play good football teams, bad things are going to happen. As soon as an opposing team takes an advantage on us, or goes up a score or two on us, we haven’t showed the adversity to fight back.”
“That’s something that goes back to the culture of the program before I got here. Changing a culture can be one of the toughest things to fix for a football program. We are gradually getting there, however. We’ll continue to work, and our program will learn how to win big ball games.”
“Every kid makes mistakes, but what I want to see is the kids that I have continue to fight, get on the field when needed and make plays,” Murray said. “There was a number of players who did that tonight, and those kids are positive. We just need to get the other players to feed off of that and learn to play at that same level no matter what’s going on.”
Murray said learning from their mistakes will be a focal point during the upcoming week.
Clarksville Academy will travel to Grace Christian Academy as they try to bounce back after a tough defeat. The game is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 7 and kickoff is expected at 7 p.m.