Playoff-bound Cougars host Bronchos

By LANCE FLEMING / Staff Writer

Randy Quisenberry is impressed by what he sees.

"Cooper is just dangerous. Explosive. Very talented," the first-year Odessa High head coach said.

Quisenberry and his Bronchos will get an up-close look at the playoff-bound Cougars tonight when the two teams meet in the regular-season finale at Shotwell Stadium.

Cooper enters the game with second place in District 4-5A wrapped up and still an outside shot at a district co-championship. Odessa High enters the contest at 2-3 in district, but with a small shot at the playoffs.

The Cougars (6-3 overall and 4-1 in 4-5A) can earn a share of the district title with a win over OHS and a San Angelo Central upset of league-leading Midland Lee. Odessa High can make the playoffs with a win over Cooper, an Abilene High win over Permian and a Lee win over Central.

That would force a three-way tie among AHS, Odessa and Permian, and under the positive points system, if Abilene High beat Permian by 11 points or fewer, Odessa High would go to the playoffs.

But it's unclear if Quisenberry can see through the blur of blue and red on his video to realize those playoff scenarios.

"We've been on our knees praying, doing Hail Mary's and anything else we can do," he said. "We're sending some of our guys to churches, some to synagogues and some to mosques tonight. We're leaving no stone unturned."

What has Quisenberry so tortured is a Cooper offense that is the district's best unit. Ranked only No. 4 in the league stats, the Cougars have nonetheless turned in four very impressive performances against Midland Lee, Odessa Permian, Midland High and San Angelo Central.

In those four games, the Cougars have averaged 390.8 yards and 39 points.

Doing most of the damage has been the skill position trifecta of Dominic Rhodes, Michael Anderson and Miles Durham.

Last week, Rhodes scored a district record-tying six touchdowns to give him 15 for the season. He also went over the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season.

Anderson is second in the league in passing and first in TD tosses with 13, and Durham leads the league in receiving with 42 catches for 720 yards and six touchdowns.

And it's not just that the Cougars are scoring, it's how they're doing it. In their last three games, they've scored right before the end of the first half and on one of the first three plays of the second half.

"The biggest problem is they spread you all over the field, then turn loose that 290-pound offensive line with Rhodes running behind it," Quisenberry said. "Then if you put seven in the box and try to play man-to-man against those receivers, they'll kill you. I don't know how you defend them. I guess it's a pick-your-poison situation. How do you want to get beat?"

Odessa's defense - ranked third in the league - will probably have to hold Cooper to fewer than 17 points, because the Bronchos have had trouble offensively all season.

They're averaging just 185.0 yards and 9.8 points per game and are the only team in the district without at least 1,300 rushing yards or 400 passing yards.

"Odessa matches its offense to its defense," CHS head coach Randy Allen said. "They're a low-risk offense. They want to try and stay close with their defense, then hope something big happens in the fourth quarter."

Quisenberry, though, has been almost as impressed with Cooper's defense as he has with its offense.

"I guess they've beaten people so bad they let the substitutes play, because they don't rank as high statistically as Lee and Abilene High," he said. "But the difference in their team is that this is the best defense they've had.

"No. 42 (tackle Kevin Stevenson) and No. 21 (tackle Roy Strahan) are outstanding," Quisenberry said. "Some people might laugh at me, but I'm not sure that when I go to the district meeting I won't vote for No. 42 as the defensive MVP over John Norman (Midland Lee safety).

"When I was at Permian, we had a kid at tackle for us named Sam Brooks, who was a great player," he said. "When my offensive coordinator (Larry Currie), who coached Brooks at Permian came in and told me that 42 was better than Brooks, that's when I stopped watching tape. I haven't seen anybody block him all year."

Cooper, in the playoffs for the fifth straight year, will be trying to go into the playoffs for the first time coming off a win in the regular-season finale.

"Entering the playoffs with a win is important," Allen said. "We've always had to jump-start ourselves going into the playoffs. But we're optimistic about the playoffs. The win over Permian removed any limitations in our minds about how far we can go."

You would think Quisenberry would agree with that.