Group of "over-achievers" took it within one step

By AL PICKETT / Sports Editor

IRVING - "Anything else, guys?" Cooper coach Randy Allen asked a group of reporters standing around him in the tunnel near the Cougars' dressing room at Texas Stadium.

Cooper had just been blown out, 55-15, in the state championship game by unbeaten Austin Westlake. It was a nightmarish ending to what had turned into a dream season with nine straight victories en route to the school's first appearance in a state championship game since Allen was a senior halfback in 1967.

It had been Allen's dream ever since he returned to his alma mater in 1991 to get the Cougars back to the state championship game and try to regain that one inch that Cooper fans felt had been taken away from them when Jack Mildren was stopped at the goal line on the controversial final play of the '67 game, a 20-19 loss to Austin Reagan.

A group of overachievers, who were born more than a decade after Cooper's disappointment of 29 years ago, gave Allen that opportunity with a surprising and thrilling playoff run.

"The thing that hurts worse," Allen said, turning back to the reporters after he had started to walk away, "is we don't get another chance. Our guys want to come back out and do it again.

"Snap, and it's gone like that."

Unlike the '67 game which ended in a controversial final play, however, Westlake removed all doubt with a 21-point explosion in a 3 1/2-minute stretch of the third quarter.

The Chaparrals scored on seven of their eight second-half possessions.

But one has to wonder what might have been if Cooper hadn't committed six second-half turnovers.

"In the third quarter, they gave us three punches before we recovered," Allen said.

As bitter a pill as the loss was to swallow, Allen tried to look at the big picture.

"I can't say enough about this senior class," he said. "It was a great run. This is the furthest I've had a team go in the playoffs. It was a great accomplishment.

"I think the seniors would be the first to tell you they took it within one step. Now they've handed the baton to the underclassmen to build on next year."

Cooper has 18 seniors on this year's squad, but the Cougars will return eight starters on defense and five on offense.

"But what great players those seniors are," Allen said. "It's been a great ride. I feel disappointment right now. It's hard to feel good emotionally, but when we look back we'll see how much we accomplished and what great individual performances we had.

"I thank the Lord that we were healthy to get to this point. To win in the playoffs, you have to be healthy and win some close games. It's hard to be thankful after you lose, but when you look at the big picture the kids did a great job."

But for the 18 Cooper seniors, Saturday afternoon was not a time to look at the big picture, however.

"I didn't think it was ever going to end," quarterback Michael Anderson said. "Three touchdowns in the third quarter, and it went downhill after that."