Cougars take another easy playoff winner

By LANCE FLEMING / Staff Writer

Another dominating performance by Dominic Rhodes, another easy Cooper win.

Rhodes scored four touchdowns, including one on a 70-yard pass with five seconds left in the first half, to lead the Cougars to a 38-18 regional semifinal win over Irving Nimitz in front of 11,000 fans at Shotwell Stadium.

The Cougars, who improved to 10-3 with their seventh straight win, have outscored their last seven opponents by a combined score of 276-151 (an average of 39.4-21.6).

Cooper now moves into the Class 5A Division I quarterfinals where it will take on the winner of today's game between Midland Lee and Flower Mound Marcus. That game will be played at 2 p.m. at Midland's Memorial Stadium.

Rhodes was especially dominant in the final 4:25 of the first half.

Cooper led just 7-6, but drove from its own 10 to the Nimitz 10 before settling for a Courtney Martin 26-yard field goal to make it 10-6 at the 4:25 mark. Rhodes, who finished with 111 yards rushing, was the workhorse in the drive, carrying the ball seven times for 28 yards.

Nimitz then went three plays and out and was forced to punt with 3:17 left in the first half. Rhodes field the Junior Sells punt at the Cooper 43, made one man miss then cut to the right sideline where he outran the field for a 57-yard punt return and a 17-6 Cooper lead with 3:02 left in the half.

But Nimitz answered with a nine-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that was capped when P.J. Traylor hit Juan Carroll with a 13-yard TD pass with just 19 seconds left in the half. The Vikings (8-5) seemingly had all the momentum going into halftime.

What they didn't have, however, was Rhodes.

After the kickoff went out of bounds, the Cougars got the ball on the 30-yard line with 19 seconds left in the half.

To no one's surprise, Rhodes got the ball.

And to no one's surprise, he made a play.

Rhodes caught a flair pass from Michael Anderson, made two men miss and sped down the left sideline for a 70-yard touchdown play that made it 24-12 with five seconds left in the half. In one fell swoop, Rhodes stole the momentum from the Vikings and put it back on the Cooper sideline.

"They scored and then we scored; that had to kill them," Rhodes said. "We were just trying to get me into the open field so I could make something happen. That's nothing new to us; we've been scoring before halftime all year."

Indeed, it's the fifth time in the last seven weeks that the Cougars have scored in the final few seconds before halftime.

And it was at halftime that Nimitz head coach Mike Farda realized he might be in for a long night.

"He (Rhodes) is every bit as good as I thought he would be," Farda said. "I told our players that he was the best athlete we had played against, and he is. We just couldn't handle the guy.

"We didn't do a good job on him in the first half," he said. "We made two critical mistakes against him in the first half: the punt return and the dadgum last play of the first half. Those two plays killed us."

Cooper coach Randy Allen said the play before the end of the half really put his team in control.

"That touchdown was big," he said, "because if we go in without scoring then they have all the momentum. When we scored it kind of evened everything out and we were still OK."

The Vikings weren't officially DOA until late in the third quarter.

Trailing 24-12 the Vikings were facing a third-and-12 from their own 42 when Traylor hooked up with Carroll for a 38-yard pass. However, just before Carroll went down, Cooper cornerback Peter Abrigg poked the ball out of Carroll's arms and safety Melvin Barnes picked it up at the 3-yard line and returned it to the 32-yard line.

Anderson - who was an efficient 9 of 13 for 205 yards - connected with Mark Rau for 35 yards on first down and Cooper was in business. Three plays later - on the first play of the fourth quarter - Rhodes bulled over Viking linebacker Tony DeAnda at the 10-yard line and scored from 21 yards out to make it 31-12 with 11:52 left in the contest.

"We were ready to cut the lead to 24-19 with a touchdown, and then we fumble the ball," Farda said. "That fumble and then their touchdown put the nail in our coffin."

Anderson closed out Cooper's scoring with 9:32 to play when he scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak.

Cooper's first-team defense took care of the rest as it held the potent Viking rushing attack to just 66 yards in the second half and 171 in the game. The Vikings had racked up 937 yards rushing in their first two playoff games.

Tackles Kevin Stevenson and Roy Strahan, as well as end Cory Aldridge and linebacker Eric Gobert, made life miserable for Traylor. Those four were in the Nimitz backfield almost as much as the three Viking running backs.

"I was real proud of our defense," Allen said. "They stopped a potent offense and made a lot of big plays. Kevin was really outstanding. He's at his best when he's rushing the passer, and he was doing that a lot tonight."

It was simply a case of too many big-play players for the Vikings to handle.

"I'm proud of our guys," Farda said, "because we played hard all year. But sometimes when you go up against somebody that's better than you it doesn't matter how hard you play. And it didn't matter tonight; Cooper's got an outstanding team."