First Peak City Backyard Brawl sees Apex Cougar victory

Hailey Loftin
Staff Writer

​      The first game between the Apex Cougars and the Apex Friendship High School Patriots was preceded by the beginnings of a heated rivalry. Tweets from fans of the Patriots called Apex “Laura Duncan High School” while tweets from Cougars fans used the hashtag “#theREALapex”. The Apex cheerleaders held a banner that said, “Ain’t Nothin’ Like The Real Thing” as the team ran out onto the field before the game.
​​      Despite it being a cold, rainy night, the Cougar Crazies made a great showing. Members of the varsity football team came in their jerseys to show their support for the JV team.

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      The game started out with an eighty-five-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Apex Friendship’s Jaden Roundtree. That was the Patriots’ first and only scoring play of the entire game. Apex scored one touchdown in the first half with a nineteen-yard run. It was a tied ball game heading into halftime, but in the second half the Cougars buckled down and scored four touchdowns. Homecoming hero Duke Fruehauf threw a fifteen-yard pass for the only touchdown of the third quarter. All three of the Cougars’ touchdowns in the fourth quarter were runs, including one that was the result of a recovered onside kick. The final score of the game was 34-7, giving the Cougars the Backyard Brawl trophy for this inaugural game.

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