Somerset — After knocking off Southwestern last week 16-6, Johnny Hines didn’t want to talk about a district championship until, as even he put it, ‘We take care of Mercer County next week.’

Well, next week came last night at PC Field, and Pulaski County did indeed do what the head coach had wished for a week earlier — the Maroons took care of business.

Pulaski County’s Zach Eastham absolutely torched the Mercer County defense in the first half of play, shredding the Titans for 257 yards passing in the opening half alone.

In all, the PC junior completed 11 of 13 passes on the night for 312 yards and 4 touchdowns, as the Maroons raced out to a 37-0 lead, and basically never looked back, in cruising to a 47-25 over lowly Mercer County.

For Pulaski, besides the obvious — the 47-25 beatdown over the Titans — it was a night of several accomplishments for the Maroons.

First, Pulaski County extended its home winning streak to 15 games, and completed its third consecutive regular season undefeated on its own home turf.

With the win, the 7-3 Maroons tied a school record for the most wins in any three-year period with 25.

Pulaski County’s Tyler Stone set a school-record early in the opening quarter of play, becoming the all-time leader at PC in career tackles.

Senior running back Eric Jones, a Maroon reserve, scored his first TD of the season on a 1-yard run late in the opening half of play.

And, oh yeah by the way, PC culminated the ‘09 regular season with a perfect, 4-0 district slate, winning the first district championship in school history outright.

Not a bad night coach Hines.

“It’s a great humble honor for us to be district champs and I’m very proud of our players,” remarked a very jubilant Johnny Hines after the game.

“Our kids truly deserved a district championship and our coaches have done a great job this year, and I’m just tickled that I got to come along for the ride,” stated the PC head coach.

Pulaski County wasted little time in simply blowing Mercer County off its field in this affair.

After the Maroons had ran only six plays, Pulaski County was leading over the Titans by a count of 14-0.

And, it was Eastham leading the way for PC.

On the Maroons first drive of the night, Pulaski County went 90 yards in only 4 plays, with the drive culminating with an Eastham to Jordan Walden touchdown pass that covered 14 yards.

The big play in the opening drive, and a sign of things to come, was when Eastham hooked up with wideout R.C. White for a 73-yard pass play.

Later in the opening stanza, Eastham hooked up with Sean Haste for a 39-yard scoring toss, and with a second Tyler Lester PAT, the Maroons were off and running with a 14-0 lead.

In all, Eastham hit on his first eight pass attempts in the first half, helping Pulaski roll out to a 30-0 lead at the intermission.

Alex Abner had a 4-yard run for a score in the second period, Lester booted a 25-yard field goal, while reserve Eric Jones got in on the act with a 1-yard plunge for a TD, and PC was well on its way to a perfect mark in league play, leading Mercer County 30-0 at the intermission.

“We were down here in 2007, and man, these guys have got some speed,” pointed out Mercer County head coach Bill Mason, in referring to Pulaski County’s personnel.

“I don’t know what they’ve got in the water down here, but they’ve got some athletes down here in Pulaski County,” Mason continued. “You can’t kid yourself by watching them on film and thinking that they’re not athletic. I think the speed of the game, you just can’t re-create that at practice.”

Eastham and company picked up early on in the third quarter where the Maroons left off at halftime.

Pulaski County took the opening kickoff of the second half, and went 65 yards on three plays in just 50 seconds.

Abner had a 35-yard scamper, Eastham called his own number and ran for 21 more yards, and then the two hooked up for Eastham’s third TD pass of the night — as he hit Abner in the left flat for a 9-yard score.

That made it 37-0 in favor of the Maroons, but Mercer County would not go down without a fight.

James Morris got the Titans on the board with a 44-yard score, trimming the deficit to 37-6 with 8:34 remaining in the third quarter of play.

Pulaski County however extended the advantage to 44-6 late in the stanza, when Eastham threw his fourth TD of the night — this time on an 11-yard pass to White.

“We had a good first half, and I thought the second quarter tonight was about as good defensively as we’ve played in a long time,” stated Hines. “We were very physical tonight on that side of the football, which is something that we’ve been dying to see.”

“I think a lot of our young kids are growing up before our very eyes,” pointed out the Maroon head coach. “Tanner Burnett had a very nice game, and he’s just a sophomore, Dylan Beshears has been excellent for the past three weeks, and I thought he really played well tonight. Tyler Abney continues to come on, and Justin Cornett has been fabulous all year long. And, these are all young guys that we’re talking about here.”

With Pulaski up 44-6 heading into the fourth quarter, and basically putting this one on cruise control, Mercer County at least made the final score respectable.

Mason’s club tallied three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, thanks to two touchdown passes by backup quarterback Alex Guay to Andrew Cornish, covering 16 and 35 yards respectively.

Sandwiched in between those two scores was a 7-yard run by Tex Claunch for another score, but by that juncture, it was too little too late for Mercer County, which finished the regular season with a 1-9 mark.

“At halftime, when you’ve got a situation where you’re down 30-0, there’s one of two ways things can go,” pointed out Mason.

“Your team can fold up their tents and pack up their bags and mentally go out of it, and usually get beat 60-0, or you can roll up your sleeves and grit your teeth and get in there and fight for your pride, and try to come out and put up something in the second half,” remarked the Titans head coach.

For Pulaski County, the Maroons finished the regular season with a 7-3 record, winning seven of their last eight games of the season, after a very disappointing 0-2 start to the season.

PC will enjoy a bye week next Friday, before hosting a first round playoff game on November 6th at PC Field.

As for Hines, the Maroon coach couldn’t be happier, because after all, his club has that first district crown under its belt, but more importantly, the PC coach says his club is heading into the playoffs playing its best football of the season.

“We feel good about where we are and where we’re trying to get to,” Hines remarked. “I don’t want to oversimplify it, but it really is one step at a time.”

“I remember the late great Dale Earnhardt saying one time when a reporter asked him about all the wins and the championships, did he ever set out and planned to do all of that?,” said Hines. “And, Dale told that reporter, ‘No’. He said the only thing he ever thought of was how he was going to win next week. That’s truly what we try to focus on. What do we need to do to win next week?”

What the Maroons can do now for the next 13 days is to celebrate a district championship.



MC 0 0 6 19 — 25

PC 14 16 14 3 — 47



FIRST QUARTER

PC—Walden 14 pass from Eastham (Lester kick)

PC—Haste 39 pass from Eastham (Lester kick)

SECOND QUARTER

PC—Abner 4 run (Lester kick)

PC—Lester 25 FG

PC—Jones 1 run (Kick failed)

THIRD QUARTER

PC—Abner 9 pass from Eastham (Lester kick)

MC—Morris 44 run (Kick failed)

PC—White 11 pass from Eastham (Lester kick)

FOURTH QUARTER

MC—Cornish 16 pass from Guay (Conv. pass failed)

PC—Lester 35 FG

MC—Claunch 7 run (Kick failed)

MC—Cornish 35 pass from Guay (Blau kick)



RUSHING—PC, 8-93 TD, Eastham 3-50, White 3-37. MC, Dunn 20-106, Morris 8-87.

PASSING—PC, Eastham 11-13 312 4 TD. MC, Dunn 3-6 21 INT, Guay 2-3 51 2 TD.

RECEIVING—PC, McQueen 4-76 TD, White 3-125 TD, Abner 3-44 TD, Haste 2-52 TD, Wesley 1-8, Shepherd 1-6, Walden 1-4. MC, Cornish 4-59 2 TD.