Clarksville Academy continued its best start to a season since 2012 with an 87-0 home victory against the Tennessee Heat on Friday, Sept. 10.
After failing to record a win last year, the Cougars are undefeated through their first four games in 2021. They held a 73-point lead at halftime and broke the school’s single-game scoring record.
“You don’t expect to put up 87 points, but the expectation is to win and that’s what we’re trying to sell these kids on, week in and week out,” said CA head coach Scott Murray. “We tell them when we come on the field, the expectation is to win.”
The Heat are a member of the National Home School Association and typically play 8-man football. Friday was their first 11-man game this year.
Eight different players scored on offense and special teams for Clarksville Academy. Quarterback Cooper Wallace led the way with a four-touchdown performance, and Tyson Hagewood, Corbin Yarbrough, Paris Pridgen and Jac Wyatt all had at least two scores.
“We knew that we had the capability to put up big numbers,” said Yarbrough, who followed up last week’s 133-yard performance against Middle Tennessee Christian with two first quarter touchdowns.
“Coach (Murray) asks us after every game we’ve had so far how it feels to be 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0. It just feels good, like you have a different aura when you walk into school. You feel good.”
Part of the early success is credited to baseball standouts like Pridgen, Wallace, Wyatt and DJ Merriweather joining the team this fall. Wallace has recorded 11 touchdowns in his last three games, and the four players combined for eight scores on Friday.
“We’re all best friends,” Wallace said. “We’ve played travel baseball since we were 8 (and) we knew if one of us did it, we would all end up doing it.”
The formula has left them without a loss so far, but Murray said CA could make a name for itself with a win next week. The Cougars travel to Nashville Christian on Friday, Sept. 17 to begin their Division II-A schedule.
“It’s important to the kids and people at the school and people in town,” Murray said of the 4-0 start. “Other schools and things like that are starting to talk about us.
“We tried to bring that mentality when we got here: we want to be talked about in Clarksville, we want to be known as the best or one of the best schools around and we want to build an elite program. We feel like we’re headed in the right direction toward building that.”
