Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Pulaski County High School freshman Jim Hylton (right) cheers and rings a cowbell with his dad, also Jim Hylton, (left) as the Pulaski County Cougars take the field in Dublin on Friday. The Cougars defeated Salem 38-0 for the Region IV Division 4 title.

Marcus Yam | The Roanoke Times

Salem fans Brendon Crowder, 17, Morgan Howard, 17, Brian Cuddy, 17, Megan Carr, 17, bundle up during their game against Pulaski County.

Marcus Yam | The Roanoke Times

Nathan Goad, 17 (center) waves the official Salem flag during its division championship game against Pulaski County.

Marcus Yam | The Roanoke Times

A Salem fan yells out as the Pulaski County Cougars score their second touchdown during Friday's game in.

DUBLIN -- Twenty-five degrees. A constant, biting wind dropping the wind-chill factor into the low teens. The remnants of a morning snow still clinging to the grass.

Lewis Bohannon left Florida for this.

"It was 78 degrees in Florida," said Bohannon, a former Salem resident who moved to Fort Myers, Fla., a couple of years ago. He sorely missed the tropical sun as he shivered in Friday night's cold, but he missed something else even more -- Salem High School football.

"I drove all the way here for this," said Bohannon.

This: Salem vs. Pulaski County for the Region IV Division 4 championship. The biggest game of the year. In the freezing cold. Bohannon was one of thousands, perhaps 7,000 or more, who found a spot inside the tundra-esque Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium adjacent to Pulaski County High School to watch two Timesland rivals smash helmets together.

Pulaski County won, 38-0.

Did we mention it was cold?

It was so cold that girls hawking programs needed Sherpas to navigate the frozen terrain. The Pulaski County band performed its halftime show not on the permafrost of the football field, but huddled together in the bleachers. The concession stand had sold 500 cups of hot chocolate before kickoff.

It was that cold.

But not cold enough to keep a guy like Bohannon away from the game. He and his buddies arrived two hours beforehand so they could get a good parking space right outside the stadium gates. The tailgaters dined on chicken, chili, potato soup and brownies while doing their best to stay warm.

One of the tailgaters was Billy Miles, a man who knows something about cold-weather football. Miles was a longtime assistant coach at Salem before taking over Franklin County's program in 2000. Now retired from coaching, Miles recalled a frigid playoff game at Cortland in 1986, made all the more memorable by the Cortland coach's inspired attempt to fire up the home fans.

"The opposing coach ran onto the field in Speedos, no shirt and a bow tie," Miles said. "He was holding chunks of bloody meat in both hands and he led the crowd in a chant ... 'We eat ... raw meat!' He'd hold up the meat when he yelled. I'm glad we won this game."

Salem would not win Friday night's game, however. Pulaski County took a quick 14-0 lead and had expanded it to 24-0 by halftime. By then, the only mystery was who would win the 50-50 drawing and if anyone would get frostbite. Scores of fans flocked to the exits at halftime.

That they were there at all was a tribute to the faithful fans. The bleachers were not as full as they were when the teams played a regular-season game two weeks ago, but that was on a mild, 60-degree night. Friday's game separated the fair-weather fans from the frigid-weather fans.

"It's always like this," said Angie Harrell," a Pulaski County guidance counselor and cheerleader coach. She and fellow teachers and coaches Rometta Carrico and Becky Roseberry sipped hot chocolate outside the gates while keeping the junior varsity cheerleaders supplied with programs to sell.

"The community support is amazing," she said.

What makes them so supportive?

"It's Friday night and this is the only thing to do," Harrell said, as she and her cohorts laughed. "The closest entertainment is in Christiansburg."

Roseberry said she heard some of her students grumble about the $7 ticket price for the playoff game. Regular-season games are $5. In a tight economy, every extra dollar causes pain.

Inside, Pulaski County senior Rodney Radford manned the souvenir stand that carried Pulaski County merchandise emblazoned with the Cougars logo. Toboggan hats and hoodies were the hot items -- or at least the warm items. Hoyt Parris, whose son is a running back for the Cougars, paid $13 for a toboggan.

"The wind wasn't blowing at my house," he said, explaining why he left home with his head topped only by a cowboy hat.

Tips on staying warm were plentiful. The game's hottest fashion was Carhartt and camouflage. A group of young men on the Pulaski County side looked more like a deer camp in the Jefferson National Forest than a posse of football fans.

"But you ain't got the trees to block the wind," Brett Compton said. He added that he and his buddies -- Chris Lewis, Dusty Woodyard, Jason Dalton and Jason Clark -- all liked to hunt and fish and they all worked in construction. Dressing for cold is what they do.

"I sleep in this," Lewis said. "These are my church clothes."

Gale Grantham of Pulaski was another fan outfitted like a hunter. Wearing camouflage from head to toe even down to the binoculars hanging from his neck, Grantham knows something about cold-weather football. His son, Todd, was a former star at Pulaski County and Virginia Tech who now coaches in the NFL. Gale Grantham once watched a game in Cleveland played in zero-degree weather made worse by a stiff wind off Lake Erie. The man knows how to dress warm.

"Don't wear your shoes too tight," he advised. "That cuts off your circulation. Keep your clothes loose enough so you can move around."

Sometimes, though, staying warm depends less on the layers and more on the scoreboard.

"It's easier to stay warm when you've got a lead," he said.