Crenshaw Christian Academy opened its 2009 season in heavy rains and with a heavy loss to the 2008 AA champs, Edgewood Academy, last Thursday night.

The Cougars came away with a 35-8 loss.

“We had a lot of mistakes,” CCA head coach Roland Jones said. “We had 5 or 6 offside penalties that really hurt us, and we turned the ball over too much.”

“Edgewood is a really good football team—they won the AA state championship last year—and they’re pretty much just as good this year.”

The Cougars got on the board in the first quarter when they recovered a safety by sacking Edgewood’s quarterback in the end zone. But by the end of the first half, the Cougars were trailing 20-2. The Wildcats added 15 more points to their score heading into the fourth quarter.

The Cougars’ lone touchdown came in the final quarter from Darren Foster on a 54-yard run, giving a final score of 35-8.

It also didn’t help the Cougars that some of their players were sick.

“Our starting quarterback was Pete King, and he was still sick with the flu and not at full strength,” Jones said. “Three of our players didn’t even make the trip because of the flu.”

Jones said three additional players saw only limited playing time because they were still getting over the flu and were still weak. However, everyone has recovered and is back on the field this week, Jones said.

Senior Darren Foster led the Cougars in rushing with two carries on 55 yards; senior Nick Kilpatrick had 11 carries for 53 yards.

Kyle Furr and Darren Foster led with nine tackles each, followed by Nick Kilpatrick with seven.

“We’re young and still trying to cut out mental errors,” Jones said. “We’ll just try to improve each week.”

The Cougars will travel to Abbeville for their first region game this Friday night. Game time is 7 p.m.