Cooper loses to Austin Westlake, 55-15

By LANCE FLEMING / Staff Writer ...(Related Photo)

IRVING - The Cooper Cougars were playing for one more inch; they ending up needing a country mile.

Cooper turned the ball over eight times, gave up 48 second-half points and lost to Austin Westlake, 55-15, Saturday in the Class 5A Division II state championship game at Texas Stadium.

The Chaparrals finish their season at 16-0 as they won their first-ever state football championship.

The Cougars (12-4) entered the game hoping to avenge the school's state-title game loss to Austin Reagan in 1967, but those hopes disappeared in a second-half flurry of turnovers, penalties and mistakes.

Cooper, which turned the ball over just six times in its five playoff games leading up to Saturday's title game, had that many turnovers in the second half, including three game-turning turnovers to start the second half.

Actually, the Cougars squandered a chance to take a halftime lead when quarterback Michael Anderson was picked off in the end zone with four seconds left in the first half, leaving the score knotted at 7-7.

"It was like a nightmare out there," said Anderson, who was picked off four times and threw for just 44 yards. "We did some good things offensively in the first half, but we should have scored more than seven points. But nothing went right in the second half."

And the bad things started from almost the beginning of the second half.

On the second play of the third quarter, Anderson was picked off by Aaron Santiso on a pass intended for Jesse Sharp.

Westlake, known for its passing attack, instead came out running the ball and pounded it straight ahead on the Cougars. Jamie Tyler carried the ball five straight times to move the ball down to the Cooper 1-yard line where quarterback Drew Brees took over and scored to make it 14-7 in favor of Westlake.

The Cougars were then forced to go three-and-out, and Jeremy Amos returned a 35-yard punt 19 yards to give the Chaparrals the ball at the Cooper 28 yard line. After a Cooper offsides penalty moved the ball to the 23, Tyler ran right up the middle of the Cooper defense, broke four arm tackles and scored from 23 yards.

Robbie Johnson then muffed the kickoff and lost it altogether when he was hit by Amos. Westlake cornerback Tomi Keah, who had a great game with three interceptions, picked up the ball at the 3 yard line.

It took three plays, but Brees scored on another 1-yard run to make it 28-7 with 4:56 left in the third quarter.

In a matter of three minutes, 35 seconds, Cooper turnovers turned a close game into a rout.

"You can't beat a good team when you're making turnovers," Cooper head coach Randy Allen said. "They gave us three punches in the third quarter before we could recover."

The Chaps, who finished with 230 yards on the ground and were led by Tyler's 24 carries for 127 yards and and two touchdowns, found a weakness in the middle of the Cooper defense and exploited it in the second half.

"We saw that they were really charging up the field, so we decided to go with some trap plays," Westlake quarterback Drew Brees said. "The ends were pinching in and we hooked them, so when we got the trap, it was wide open."

Westlake, however, didn't quit scoring at that point.

The Chaps would score on three of their next four possessions to take a 48-9 lead with 6:39 left in the ballgame. Brees would throw touchdown passes of 47 and 20 yards to Amos and Matt Murphy, respectively, and Brees scored on a 2-yard keeper.

Cooper's only highights in the second half were a safety by Peter Abrigg when he returned a blocked extra point for two points, and an 82-yard touchdown run by Dominic Rhodes to make the score 48-15. Rhodes finished with 230 yards and two TD's on 24 carries, but the turnovers were too much for Cooper to overcome.

"You coach against that, and you'd like to play error-free football," Allen said. "We made too many mistakes in the second half, and they took advantage of their opportunities."

The first half was an unexpected defensive struggle highlighted by the return of Cooper wide receiver Miles Durham. The 6-3 senior underwent surgery on his left shoulder just five weeks after separating it in the Cougars' bi-district win over Amarillo High.

But it was a big defensive play and Rhodes that helped Cooper take a 7-0 lead in the second quarter.

With just 2:08 left in the first quarter, Cooper's Kevin Stevenson blocked Dylan Becker's 50-yard field goal attempt and Eric Gobert recovered the loose ball at the Westlake 43-yard line.

Eight plays later, Rhodes bulled in from 3 yards to give Cooper a 7-0 lead.

Four plays into Westlake's next possession, Brees was picked off by Josh Button, who returned the ball 27 yards to the Westlake 44 yard line. The Cougars, however, were unable to convert that turnover into points, and the Chaps would make them pay.

Westlake scored on its next possession, driving the ball 83 yards on 13 plays to a Tyler 8-yard run that tied the score at 7-7. The key play in the drive came when Button was called for pass interference on a play that ended up with Cooper safety Melvin Barnes picking the ball off. But the interception was waved off, and Westlake retained possession.

Twelve plays later, Tyler scored to tie the game with 45 seconds left in the first half.

But on the second play of Cooper's next possession, Rhodes took a draw play 48 yards down to the Westlake 23 yard line. With time running out, Anderson tried to hit Durham on a fade pattern in the back of the end zone, but Keah picked off his second pass of the game to keep the game knotted at 7-7 at the half.

Things then quickly went downhill for Cooper, which saw its winning streak stopped at nine with the loss. But the end didn't dampen what Allen saw as a brilliant season.

"Our guys have had such a tremendous championship run to get to this point," he said. "It's such a tremendous accomplishment to even get this far."