Cottondale falls to Liberty County in jamboree

By Dustin Kent

Published: May 21, 2008

The Cottondale Hornets concluded their spring football season Tuesday night with a jamboree against the Liberty County Bulldogs, falling 21-0.

Liberty County scored twice in the first half and again in the closing minutes of the game, all three touchdowns coming on option keepers by the Bulldogs’ quarterback.

“They were just steady drives right down to the goal line, no huge runs, just power,” Cottondale coach Mike Melvin said of the Bulldogs’ offensive attack.
“They’ve got some real firepower.”

Melvin said his team was undermanned due to injuries, which plagued the team all spring.

“We had five running backs out and some starting linemen out, so we were pretty limited in what could do offensively,” he said. “All our skill players had to go both ways and in the spring it’s hard to try to run that many downs.”

Melvin said Tuesday night’s game wasn’t all bad, but there issues that his team would have to work through by the fall.

“There were some positives,” he said. “I saw some good things, but some of the things we’ve got to work on are glaring. Our offensive line has to grow up. We’ve got four sophomores there, so this summer will be the key for any success we have at all. They have to work hard in the weight room.”

Melvin said he didn’t regret scheduling a team as talented as Liberty County for the jamboree, rather that the Bulldogs were the perfect opponent for his team.

“Playing a team like Liberty is important, especially for linemen to see that they’ve got to get in the weight room and get stronger to be good,” the coach said. “If we played somebody easy, we wouldn’t be able to see what we have to work on.”

Despite the injury concerns, the Hornets haven’t lost any players who won’t be back for the fall.
However, the injury issues in spring made for a difficult camp.

“It was tough because you’ve got kids who are not defensive backs having to play defensive back, some kids not used to being receivers or running backs having to do that,” Melvin said.
“It was a challenge, but the kids who were there got a lot of reps and learned a lot.

“The good thing is that we came out healthy (against Liberty County) and didn’t get anybody injured, which is good because Liberty County is a physical football team.”