Cougars admit they played a terrible game

By LANCE FLEMING/Staff Writer

Randy Allen has always said that after the last game of the season, only one team can go home happy.

The Cooper Cougars definitely left Texas Stadium an unhappy group after Saturday's 55-15 loss to Austin Westlake in the Class 5A Division II state championship game.

They left the stadium knowing that in the biggest game of their high school careers they had played their worst game of the football season. They also left the stadium knowing that they had virtually given the game away with eight turnovers, including six in the second half.

But perhaps they also left knowing that they had lost to a team that clearly wasn't four points better than them, not to mention 40. They had played to a 7-7 halftime deadlock before the turnover bug hit.

And it was a first half that saw Cooper outplay Westlake. But it was the turnovers in the second half that made the difference.

Cooper quarterback Michael Anderson was intercepted four times and the Cougars fumbled four times, including two by Dominic Rhodes.

But if any good can come out of Saturday's loss, it's that this group of Cougars showed what a classy group they really are.

It would have been easy for them to stomp off the field after the loss and say they didn't want to talk to any of the assembled media. But all of them that were asked to talk did so.

Among them Anderson, who no doubt would have rather gone straight to the dressing room and not talked to anyone for days. But he stood there answering question after question from newspaper and televsion reporters.

He answered questions about his four interceptions, about not playing up to his standards and about whether the Cougars threw too much in the direction of Miles Durham.

There were no tears and no excuses.

None from Durham, either, who plainly stated that he played a "horrible game."

Durham returned Saturday after missing the Cougars' previous 41/2 games after undergoing surgery on his left shoulder, which was separated in the team's bi-district win over Amarillo High.

But Durham, by his own admission, wasn't the same player Saturday as he was before the injury. He wasn't as aggressive with the ball in the air, and he didn't get physical with defensive backs.

And who could blame him? Staring at the distinct possibility that he could again tear up his shoulder, Durham showed a lot of character by just getting out on the field.

But Durham put the blame on himself for at least two of Anderson's interceptions, saying that "I was tentative, and I'm big enough to admit it. I got a little scared after the first hit on my shoulder."

Admitting that after the biggest football game of his life should put Durham at the top of a lot of people's "Most Respected" list.

But, really, all the Cougars should be there after the way they performed this season.

For a team picked to fight it out for third place in District 4-5A to make it to the state championship game says something about the heart and character of the players on the team.

The way they came back to beat Odessa Permian after a tough loss to Midland Lee will always be a favorite memory. As will Rhodes' last-play touchdown run against Amarillo High, Anderson-to-Durham in any game and Courtney Martin's overtime field goal in the semifinal win over Richardson Lake Highlands.

This group of young men should have made the people of Abilene - on both sides of town - proud for the way the represented our city.

And, yes, Saturday's loss will sting for a while. But the good memories will eventually wipe out all the bad ones. And those memories will last a lifetime.