Cooper offensive key will be sustaining drives

By LANCE FLEMING / Staff Writer

It's hard to imagine Cooper playing a faster defense than the one the Cougars faced last week in the semifinals against Richardson Lake Highlands.

The Wildcats had speed at almost every position, and closed holes almost as soon as they opened. That's one reason they were able to limit Cooper's Dominic Rhodes to just 98 yards on 30 carries, his lowest total of the playoffs.

Austin Westlake, though, can play good defense as evidenced by the fact that it's allowed just 170 points on the season and is giving up just 255.3 yards per game.

Defensive tackle Devin Schade, end Matt Matza and linebackers Jeff White and Jason Piefer are playmakers.

"They do an excellent job of running to the football," Cooper offensive line coach Mike Patterson said. "They aren't extremely big, but they are mobile."

Westlake runs quite a few line stunts to fill gaps, and that could make the sledding tough for Rhodes once again.

"Their scheme is sound," Patterson said. "If they leave one area, they do something to cover up the vacancy. It'll appear that you've found a weakness, but then they'll quickly cover it up."

One of the keys for Cooper's offense might be playing keep-away from Westlake's high-powered offense. Long drives to points might be Cooper's best defense.

The key to Cooper's ability to do that will depend largely upon an offensive line that continues to improve. Webb Murphy, Everett Fraser, Kevin Hofmann, Matt Royals and Joey Heath have to dominate a smaller Westlake defensive line.

"We'd like to keep the ball in our hands every week," Patterson said. "But we'd like to do it even moreso this week with their offense. We can't afford to have many three-and-out series."

Cooper unveiled some things in last week's win over Lake Highlands that it hadn't previously showed. One of those things was the tight end reverse to Cory Aldridge, who picked up seven yards on his first carry of the season.

That diversity and ability to both run and throw will help the Cougars.

If Westlake is holding Rhodes in check, the Cougars have quarterback Michael Anderson, who has thrown for 2,241 yards and 21 touchdowns on the season. He'll throw to Rhodes and Aldridge, as well as tight end Chad Forman and receivers Jesse Sharp, Cory Rodriguez and Mark Rau.

"If they're holding Dominic, we'll be throwing," Patterson said. "The third-quarter touchdown drives we had last week were picture-perfect. We kept them off balance, and they didn't know when we were going to throw and when we were going to pass. They can key on Dominic, but that will give us someplace else to go."

Which is the beauty of the one-back offense.

"Obviously in a one-back offense, they key to stop the running back," Patterson said. "But we're 50-50 run-pass anyway. They can't stop the run and just give us the pass."

Westlake uses zone coverage most of the time in the secondary, although Patterson said that occasionally it will run some man-to-man.

"There are good parts to both," Patterson said. "Against man coverage, that gives us a chance to go for the home-run ball. When we get press coverage, that's when we're going deep. Against the zone, though, we have to go with the underneath stuff, but that can eat up yards. That's the beauty of this offense."