Saturday, November 22, 1997
Cooper 50, El Paso Socorro 8By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer
EL PASO -- The Bulldogs of El Paso Socorro thought this might be the year that a team from District 4-5A would finally fall.
But they learned very quickly that the best team in El Paso has a long way to go to catch up to the best team in 4-5A.
The fourth-ranked Cooper Cougars marched into the Socorro Student Activities Complex Friday night and laid a 50-8 whipping on the Bulldogs in the area round of the Division II Region I playoffs.
The victory sends the 11-1 Cougars to the regional semifinals where they will take on South Grand Prairie, which beat Arlington Lamar 18-14 on a 60-yard touchdown pass on the game's final play. The Cooper-South Grand Prairie game will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Gopher Bowl in Grand Prairie.
Cooper reached the regional semifinals for the fifth year in a row behind a devestating first-quarter performance.
The Bulldogs, who finish 9-3, turned the ball over twice in the opening quarter and had a 28-yard punt.
The Cougars took advantage of all three bad plays to score touchdowns and take the emotion right out of Socorro.
"Coach (Randy) Allen told us earlier in the week that everybody in El Paso thought this was the year a 4-5A team would get beat," Cooper quarterback Brandon Stover said. "But we got them down so far so early that you could tell it got them down."
Stover was sharp all night, but particularly in the first quarter when he completed 5 of 7 passes for 71 yards. He scored two first-quarter touchdowns and was calm in the pocket in his second start back after breaking a bone in his foot.
Socorro got the ball first, but turned it over six plays into the game when Kellen Medeiros picked off an Albert Montes pass and returned it to the Cooper 47-yard line. The Cougars overcame a third-and-14 -- thanks to a couple of Socorro penalties -- and on third-and-4 from his 47, Stover found Jesse Sharp for 25 yards.
Four plays later Stover scored from a yard out for a 7-0 lead.
Socorro was forced to punt on its next possession, and Manny Rivera's punt only went 27 yards, giving the Cougars the ball at their 40-yard line.
Stover completed all three passes on the drive -- 15 yards to Sharp, 10 yards to Adam Riddle and 12 yards to Mark Rau -- and would have had a touchdown pass to Sharp if not for pass interference on Rivera. Two plays after the penalty, goal-line running back Roy Strahan bulled in from the 1-yard line for a 14-0 advantage.
The Bulldogs' next possession ended in failure as well when tailback Mauri Padilla fumbled after a 4-yard gain and linebacker Kyle Wiskow scooped it up to give the Cougars the ball at the Socorro 32-yard line. Eight plays later Stover scored again from one yard out to give the Cougars a 21-0 lead with two seconds left in the first quarter.
"Those three scores right off the bat really hurt them," Stover said. "We were able to take their turnovers and convert them into touchdowns, and it was big for us to get ahead early."
Cooper then poured it on in the third quarter, taking advantage of Socorro's defensive scheeme which deployed only three men in the secondary.
After going to the ground to get the three first-half touchdowns, the Cougars went to the air in the third quarter.
Stover threw touchdown passes of 20 and 36 yards to Mark Rau, and backup quarterback Dowell Loggains added a 35-yard scoring strike to Rau late in the third quarter to turn the game into a 43-0 rout. Rau, after catching just one pass in the first half, finished the game with five catches for 112 yards and three touchdowns.
The 36-yard strike to Rau came on the first play after a Socorro punt, and it -- along with the 35-yarder from Loggains -- came right down the seam of the Socorro defense.
"They put so many guys in the box (on the line of scrimmage) that there was no reason to run the ball when we were 3 on 3 on the outside," said Stover, who finished 11 of 16 for 186 yards. "We wanted to attack their free safety, and it worked out that we were able to hit some seams."
Cooper's final score came on a 20-yard run by Strahan on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The Cooper offense, which rolled up 424 yard, was aided by a defense that allowed Socorro's high-powered attack just 276 yards and one meaningless score late in the game.
Medeiros and David O'Shields had interceptions for the Cougars and Cooper pounced on two fumbles. The four turnovers led directly to three Cooper touchdowns.
All in all, it was a complete night for the Cougars.
"This is probably the best we've played in a couple of weeks," Stover said. "When we got to the stadium you could just tell that we were ready to play. Everybody was focused and there wasn't any joking around. We wanted to prove to everybody out here that 4-5A football isn't down at all. It's nice to come here and play well."
Cooper 21 0 22 7 --50
Socorro 0 0 0 8 --8
SCORING SUMMARY
CHS -- Brandon Stover 1 run (Peter Abrigg kick)
CHS -- Roy Strahan 1 run (Abrigg kick)
CHS -- Stover 1 run (Abrigg kick)
CHS -- Mark Rau 20 pass from Stover (Jesse Sharp pass from Abrigg)
CHS -- JRau 36 pass from Stover (Scott McNea kick)
CHS -- Rau 35 pass from Dowell Loggains (Joe Childers kick)
CHS -- Strahan 20 run (McNea kick)
SHS -- Brandon Hedgecock 13 pass from Albert Montes (Hedgecock pass from Montes)
Cooper Socorro
First downs 24 18
Rushes-yards 36-194 36-128
Passing yards 230 148
Comp-Att-Int 13-23-0 15-29-2
Punts 0-0 2-21.5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-2
Penalties-yards 4-30 4-24
RUSHINGT -- Cooper, Robbie Johnson 16-95, Roy Strahan 9-75, Jesse Sharp 1-22, Michael Medina 5-9, Brandon Stover 5-(-7); Socorro, Mauri Padilla 16-82, Damien Villa 1-(-3), Sam Chagolla 12-44, Rod Sierra 2-5, Albert Montes 4-(-5), Sam Jimenez 1-5.
PASSING -- Cooper, Stover 11-16-0 186 yards 2 TDs, Dowell Loggains 1-3-0 35 yards 1 TD, Jeremy Janssen 1-4-0 9 yards; Socorro, Montes 13-25-2 125 yards 1 TD, Tony Nieves 2-3-0 23 yards; Raul Arroyo 0-1-0
RECEIVING -- Cooper, Mark Rau 5-12 3 TDS, Jesse Sharp 3-48, Adam Riddle 4-61, Anthony Rozzell 1-9; Socorro, Raul Arroyo 5-56, Rod Sierra 6-54, Brandon Hedgecock 1-13 1 TD, Maury Padilla 1-2, Manny Rivera 1-7, Joe Varela 1-16.