Asheville - August 29, 2008 - A.C. Reynolds (4A) came away with a 17-10 football victory over the Asheville Cougars (3A) in the season opener, for only their second win over the Cougars in the last six meetings.

Reynolds scored in the second quarter on a pass from Paul Wright to Rudy Cabral, a blocked punt by John Thomas, and finally on a 25 yard Tim Councell Field goal with 6:00 left in the third quarter to take a 17-0 lead.

Asheville got on the board with a 32 yard field goal by Mark Powell with 9:58 left in the game, and came within a TD on a 29 yard scoring pass from Brandon Whiteside to Darius Drummond for an acrobatic catch at the 7:01 mark.  Tyheim Bolden then intercepted a Reynolds pass at the Rocket 23 yard line with 2:49 remaining.  The Cougars' hopes to pull out the win were dashed by a Reynolds interception in the end zone with 34.6 seconds remaining.

Overall, a great effort by the Cougars on both sides of the ball.  The media's unofficial consensus in the Zeb Lee Press Box was that Asheville should have little trouble winning the MAC title once again, based on their performance against the 4A Rockets.