Coach Roland Jones' 1A Crenshaw Christian Academy Cougars squared off against the 2B Arnold High School Marlins last Friday night in Panama City Beach, Fla., and when the final buzzer had sounded the Marlins had posted a 41-13 win.

The Cougars fell to 2-5 on the 2005 season and will have to step it up for the final three games if they plan to reach the AISA state playoffs.

&#8220It was a good experience for us to play a team of Arnold's caliber. They are in the Florida Public School Athletic Association and the 2B class is equivalent to 5A in Alabama. I thought we really played good,” noted Coach Jones.

The Marlins boast 1,600 students in grades 10-12. Their line averaged 240 lbs. across both sides of the ball and their senior quarterback passed for the 6,000 yard milestone in Friday's game.

Earlier in the season Arnold defeated Bay High School 21-0. Bay later defeated Enterprise 17-14.

The Cougars trailed 20-0 at intermission and felt good about their first half performance. But Arnold's highly explosive offense was too much for the CCA defense in the second half.

&#8220We played pretty tough in the first half, but their depth and talent was too much for us in the second half. We got to play all our players and their last touchdown came against our freshmen unit,” stated Jones.

The Cougars were able to get on the board in the final period on two Klein Jones' TD passes. Jones hooked up with Andrew Armour for a 3-yard TD strike and later hit Allen Sasser for a 42-yard TD strike.

Jones finished the night 10-of-22 for 136 yards. On the receiving end were, Sasser 3-57 yards, Chad Heartsill 3-36 yards, Sloan Carter 2-26 yards, Shawn Nelson 1-14 yards and Armour 1-3 yards.

Senior HB Mike McDonald saw limited action but still turned in another fine perfornance with 89 yards on 13 carries. He also recorded a 2-2 chart from his LB position.

The Cougar defense was led by linebacker Sloan Carter with 6 solos and 1 assit, Shawn Nelson with 5 stops, Chad Heartsill with 4 solos, Chaffin Johnson 3-3, Matthew Walden 3 stops and a sack and Brandon Polk 3-1.

The Cougars have their postseason hopes in their own hands.

Crenshaw has faced a tough schedule as four of their five losses were by teams that are still winning- Autauga is still undefeated at 7-0, Lowndes is 6-1, Pike who is 3A is 5-2 and Lakeside's record is 6-1.

&#8220We've been improving each week and the competition has been tough this year. I really feel good about our chances of making the playoffs,” noted Jones.

The Cougars will have to step it up now as they face region opponents Ashford, SMCA and Chambers to round out their schedule. They need to win all three games to assure themselves of a spot in the big dance.

Crenshaw is on the road this week in a 7:30 pm kick-off at Ashford.