Saturday, November 15, 1997
Cooper 28, Amarillo Tascosa 14By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer
LUBBOCK -- Playing in weather conditions better suited for polar bears, the Cooper Cougars started their journey back to the state title game with a 28-14 win over Amarillo Tascosa at Jones Stadium.
With a wind-chill factor of minus-1, a wind gusting out of the north at 25 mph and snow and ice covering the turf, the Cougars churned out 260 yards on the ground to improve to 10-1 on the season.
Cooper, ranked fourth in the state, will now play El Paso Socorro next Friday in the area round of the Division II playoffs. The game will be played at the Socorro Activities Complex at 8:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. El Paso time).
The Cougars are going to El Paso for the third time in the last five years thanks to a couple of big plays late in the first half of Friday night's game.
Socorro cut Cooper's lead to 7-6 with 4:46 left in the first half on a 2-yard touchdown run by Ryan Jackson.
The Cougars, though, responded by driving 59 yards on six plays to a touchdown. Robbie Johnson, who had 213 yards on 23 carries, had runs of 17, 7 and 3 yards on the drive, and Richard Rodriguez got it started with a 30-yard burst.
The drive ended Cooper took a 14-6 lead with 2:45 left in the first half when quarterback Brandon Stover -- back as the starter after missing Cooper's last four games with injury -- scored on a sneak from a yard out.
Then the complexion of the game changed completely.
On the first play after the kickoff, Jackson was picked off by David O'Shields, who returned the ball from the Tascosa 32-yard line to the 14. On the next play Johnson blew through a huge hole on the right side of the line to score from 14 yards out and give Cooper a 21-6 lead with 2:20 left in the first half.
In a span of 25 seconds and three plays the Cougars went from a precarious one-point advantage to a commanding two-touchdown lead.
"The end of the first half was certainly critical," Tascosa head coach Doug McCutchen said. "First they score and then they get the interception. Those were both big plays."
Cooper head coach Randy Allen agreed.
"Getting those scores was real big," he said. "With the weather conditions the way they were, if we hadn't put any distance between us and them, anything could have happened. They played hard in the second half and made some drives."
None longer than the opening drive of the second half when the Rebels (8-3) went 59 yards on 15 plays and chewed 6 minutes, 49 seconds off the clock. Ricky Captain, who filled in at running back and was heroic with 42 carries and 223 yards, carried the ball on 13 of the plays.
But his last carry, on fourth-and-2 from the CHS 3-yard line, came up 1 yard short of a first down. Cooper eventually had to punt from its 20-yard line, but Rocky McWhirter got a nice and bounce and roll and ended up with a 67-yard punt.
Tascosa's ensuing drive was stopped nine plays later by a Peter Abrigg interception, and the Rebels didn't threaten until they scored again with less than one minute left in the game.
"I was very proud of the kids, because we came out and fought hard," McCutchen said. "If we score on that first drive, that puts us right back in the ballgame. We just weren't able to get it in."
Tascosa kept the ball for most of the second half, picking up 11 first downs to Cooper's 2, and grinding out 139 rushing yards. But the Cooper defense made the Rebels work for everything they got, and the 15-point lead stood up.
"The one thing we didn't want to do was give up the big play, and, for the most part we stayed away from that," Allen said. "We came up with some big turnovers and had the goal-line stand when we needed it."
Johnson tacked on Cooper's final points of the game when he shot through a hole in the middle of the defense and went 77 yards for a score with 6:39 to play in the game. Tascosa added a touchdown on a Captain run with 44 seconds left, but that was merely a cosmetic score.
After a scoreless first quarter, Cooper took a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter, thanks to some fourth-down trickery.
Facing a fourth-and-11 from his 32-yard line, Allen decided to punt away. But after back-to-back penalties, one on each team, Allen changed his mind. Instead he ordered McWhirter to loft a pass that Abrigg ran under at the Tascosa 9-yard line.
Tascosa punt returner Jason McAlister thought Abrigg was going to catch the ball and down it at the 9-yard line, so he began waving to signal a fair catch. But Abrigg's catch gave Cooper new life inside the Tascosa 10-yard line.
"(Defensive coordinator) Joe Crousen and the defensive staff worked on that all week and we put it in the game plan," Allen said. "We thought about using it the first time we had to punt, and then we had the penalties. I guess those just gave us more time to think about it and we decided to use it."
Three plays later, Stover hit a wide-open Mark Rau for an 8-yard touchdown pass and 7-0 lead with 10:34 left in the first half.
Tascosa marched right back down the field, however, going 73 yards on 14 plays and scoring when Jackson scored on the option keeper to make it 7-6. The snap on the PAT was bad, and that kept the Rebels one point down.
Cooper then blew the game open late in the half and then hung on in the second round to advance to the next round.
"You know, you always worry about playing in weather conditions like this, because sometimes good teams get upset," Allen said. "You never know about your kicking game, and I thought ours was really solid tonight. It's great for our team to play and win in these conditions. I think you learn a lot about your team and what you can and can't do. I'm really proud of our guys for the way they hung in there and came out with the win."
Tascosa 0 6 0 8--14
Cooper 0 21 0 7--28
SCORING SUMMARY
CHS -- Mark Rau 8 pass from Brandon Stover (Peter Abrigg kick)
Tascosa -- Ryan Jackson 2 run (pass failed)
CHS -- Stover 1 run (Abrigg kick)
CHS -- Robbie Johnson 14 run (Abrigg kick)
CHS -- Johnson 77 run (Abrigg kick)
Tascosa -- Ricky Captain 13 run (Ryan Jackson pass to Captain)
Tascosa Cooper
First downs 17 14
Rushes-yards 57-238 32-260
Passing yards 41 66
Comp-Att-Int 5-13-2 4-11-1
Punts 4-37.3 3-35.3
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-2
Penalties-yards 4-20 7-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- Tascosa: Ricky Captain 42-223, Bryson Samuels 6-17, Nathan Duvall 4-8, Josh Handon 1-5, Ryan Jackson 5-(-10). Cooper: Robbie Johnson 23-213, Richard Rodriguez 5-45, Brandon Stover 2-2, Michael Medina 2-0.
PASSING -- Tascosa: Jackson 5-13-2, 41 yards. Cooper: Stover 3-8-0, 43 yards; Rocky McWhirter 1-1-0, 23 yards; Dowell Loggains 0-2-1.
RECEIVING -- Tascosa: Jason McAlister 2-19, Duvall 2-23, T'Challa Rosa 1-(-1). Cooper: Mark Rau 2-22, Adam Riddle 1-21, Peter Abrigg 1-23