Saturday, November 1, 1997
Cooper 35, SA Central 14By LANCE FLEMING / Abilene Reporter-News
SAN ANGELO -- The last time Cooper won an outright district football championship, the league was known as District 5-4A.
Next week they get a shot at their first-ever outright District 4-5A title.
Cooper, ranked fifth in the state, clinched at least a share of the championship Friday night with a workmanlike 35-14 win over the San Angelo Central Bobcats at San Angelo Stadium.
The Cougars (8-1 overall and 5-0 in district play) will take on Odessa High next Friday at Ratliff Stadium, and if they win they will win the district title outright for the first time since 1979. OHS lost to Midland High Friday and can now only share the title with the Cougars if they win next Friday's game.
"Well we can at least talk about that one now," Cooper head coach Randy Allen said. "I think we're ready to peak and turn it on, but right now our goal is to win the district championship."
The Cougars looked ready to do just that Friday night as they manhandled Central's defense and shut down the league's top-ranked offense. Central gained 287 yards of offense, but 81 of that came on three of its 52 plays.
Central, in fact, went 17 minutes, 58 seconds in the middle of the game without so much as picking up a first down.
"I thought we were much better defensively," Allen said. "The defensive coaches had a good game plan, and they did a good job of getting our guys ready to play.
"We were ready to play tonight, and I could sense that in the pregame warmups," he said. "I knew they would be ready next week, but I worried a little about them overlooking this one. But we came out and played well in every facet of the game."
Thanks to a pair of Central turnovers, the Cougars lead 14-0 at the half. After punting on their first drive of the third quarter, the Cougars scored on their next three to turn a 14-0 game into a 35-7 rout with 7:02 left in the game.
CHS quarterback Dowell Loggains, who completed 10 of 13 passes for 140 yards in the first half, gave way to Jeremy Janssen in the second half, who was impressive as well, completing 4 of 7 passes for 96 yards and one touchdown.
Cooper's first score of the second half came on third-and-16 from its own 26 when Robbie Johnson took the handoff from Janssen, ran into a wall of defenders on the right side, reversed his field to the right and sprinted 74 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown.
Central then scored its first points of the night, going 70 yards to a 5-yard scoring pass from Julio Guerrero to Mark Wheelis with one minute left in the third quarter.
But the Cougars big-played the Bobcats again on their next drive when Janssen hit Jesse Sharp with a perfect throw and Sharp did the rest on a 62-yard touchdown pass play that made it 28-7 with 11:08 left in the game.
Throw in a 48-yard shovel pass from Loggains to Mark Rau in the first half and it was a big night offensively for the Cougars.
Cooper rang up 418 yards of offense, including 131 on the ground from Johnson. But, right tackle Joey Heath said, the Cougars can do more.
"We didn't show all the tricks we have up our sleeve," he said. "We wanted to save some for next week. But the running backs ran well, the receivers ran great routes, the quarterbacks threw well and the offensive line did a good job protecting them. And the defense played a great game. Overall it was a great effort by everybody."
Cooper got on the board first after Guerrero fumbled at the CHS 24-yard line on the first drive of the game. Kellen Medeiros hopped on the ball, setting the Cougars up with 9:22 left in the opening stanza.
The shovel pass from Loggains to Rau worked for 48 yards on second-and-5 from the CHS 48-yard line, and Richard Rodriguez finished off the drive two plays later when he scored from three yards out.
"If teams are going to hand us the ball, we're going to do something with it," Rau said. "We're putting points on the board right now, and we'll be hard to stop if we play like we can."
Two drives after the opening score the Cougars went 80 yards, using 14 plays and 5:41 off the clock to a Loggains 1-yard touchdown run. Loggains completed passes of 11 yards to Andy Rodgers and 13 and 7 to Rau.
"Who would have thought that Dowell and Jeremy would play the way they've played since (starting quarterback) Brandon (Stover) went out?" Rau said. "Those guys have been unbelievable."
Cooper had one more chance to score before halftime when Central running back Chris Rodgers fumbled at his own 34-yard line. Loggains completed a 23-yard pass to Rau to give Cooper a first down at the 12-yard line, but Peter Abrigg's 29-yard field goal attempt was blocked.
But Cooper had no trouble putting this game on ice in the second half.
And now the Cougars can look forward to adding a district championship trophy to their trophy case for the first time since 1979.
"It's a big deal for everybody on this team," said Rau, who had 109 yards on six catches. "We haven't won one since a lot of us have been alive. It would be a huge accomplishment, and that's what we want. The playoffs aren't in our thoughts right now; we want that district bell."
They get their shot next week.
Cooper 7 7 7 14--35
San Angelo Central 0 0 7 7--14
SCORING SUMMARY
CHS -- Richard Rodriguez 3 run (Peter Abrigg kick)
CHS --Dowell Loggains 1 run (Abrigg kick)
CHS -- Robbie Johnson 74 run (Abrigg kick)
SAC -- Mark Wheelis 5 pass from Julio Guerrero (Michael Carraciolo kick)
CHS -- Jesse Sharp 62 pass from Jeremy Janssen (Abrigg kick)
CHS -- Janssen 14 run (Scott McNea kick)
SAC -- Chris Rodgers 35 run (Carraciolo kick)
Cooper Central
First downs 19 14
Rushes-yards 37-189 35-195
Passing yards 229 96
Comp-Att-Int 14-20-0 9-18-1
Punts 3-73.3 4-37.8
Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-2
Penalties-yards 3-20 1-5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- Cooper: Robbie Johnson 16-131, Jeremy Janssen 3-24, Richard Rodriguez 11-36, Roy Strahan 2-4, Dowell Loggains 5-(-6). Central: Chris Rodgers 17-145, Sean Sparks 8-35, Aaron Steans 4-10, Ryan Cabello 1-3, Andy Montelongo 1-4, Julio Guerrero 4-(-2).
PASSING -- Cooper: Dowell Loggains 10-13-0, 140 yards; Jeremy Janssen 4-7-0, 89 yards. Central: Guerrero 9-18-1, 96 yards.
RECEIVING -- Cooper: Mark Rau 6-109, Jesse Sharp 4-96, Andy Rodgers 2-18, Adam Riddle 1-8, Richard Rodriguez 1-(-2). Central: Andy Montelongo 2-10, Jason Millsap 1-5, Mark Rogerson 3-40, Sean Sparks 1-11, Chris Rodgers 1-25, Mark Wheelis 1-5.