Cooper's success was a surprise to some ... not to others

By LANCE FLEMING / Staff Writer

San Angelo Central head coach Gary Gaines sat in the Shotwell Stadium locker room the night of Nov. 1 and could only shake his head.

"Cooper's very good," he said after watching Cooper clinch a playoff berth for the fifth straight year with a 59-28 shellacking of the Bobcats. "They dominated us in every phase of the ballgame. They'll be a fine representative of this district in the playoffs."

How fine he didn't know then, but he does now.

And he's not all that shocked to see the Cougars playing Austin Westlake Saturday for the Division II state championship.

"I'm really not surprised because they have great size up front in the offensive line, they have a great running back and a quarterback that can throw the football," Gaines said. "They have excellent quickness on defense and they've just gotten better and better and peaked at the right time. I said after we played them that they are an outstanding football team, and they've proven that."

Coaches and observers around the area might have offered a different opinion of the Cougars around the first of October.

They were struggling offensively, not having found any rhythm or gotten any consistency either running the ball or throwing it. Dominic Rhodes hadn't gotten untracked, and the passing game wasn't clicking like everyone thought it would.

Cooper then lost back-to-back games to Amarillo High (31-28) and Midland Lee (27-22) to fall to 3-3 on the season. It seemed a team that started the season with high aspirations would now have to pick up its pace just to have a winning season.

But the Cougars turned their season around in the second half of the Lee game, scoring 20 points and rolling up almost 200 yards of total offense against a defense most considered the best in District 4-5A.

The confidence gained in that game would help the Cougars believe they could beat Odessa Permian the next week.

And they did exactly that, whipping Permian 35-21 for their first win over Mojo since 1979. Cooper did it convincing style, jumping on top 14-0 and never letting the Panthers get back in the ballgame.

The Cougars haven't let up too much the rest of the way, piling up nine straight wins - five in the playoffs - to reach the state championship game for the first time since a 20-19 loss to Austin Reagan in 1967.

And it's what happened in that 1967 game that has been Cooper's rallying cry all season.

In that '67 title game, Cooper quarterback Jack Mildren was stopped short of the goal line on fourth down on the last play of the game. The way the story is told, Mildren really did score because when he got up off the ground, he had a chalk mark across his body, meaning at least his head and chest were in the end zone with the ball.

Cooper head coach Randy Allen, a starting running back on that team, has dreamed ever since of returning to his alma mater to get that one more inch the Cougars needed. And now they've got their chance.

Allen and his team have gotten here thanks to a team that has continually made big plays when it needs to make them, plays great defense, has balance on offense and can run the football.

The Cougars have scored 68 touchdowns on the season, and 24 of them have come from at least 30 yards out. Rhodes leads the team in the big-play category with 15 touchdown plays of at least 30 yards.

The big-play scores have come in every conceivable fashion, from punt and kick returns to passing or running plays to interception returns. The only way Cooper hasn't scored this year is on a fumble return.

The big plays, however, haven't been confined to the offense or special teams; the defense has made its presence felt.

Josh Button and Melvin Barnes have each returned interceptions for touchdowns this season, and big turnovers and key stops have been a trademark of a more aggressive Cooper defensive unit.

In the loss to Midland Lee, Cooper stopped the Rebels on fourth down late in the game to give the offense a chance to take the lead. In the Permian win, the Panthers had cut Cooper's lead to 28-14 and had recovered an onside kick early in the fourth quarter. But the Cooper defense stiffened and stopped Permian on fourth down, turning the ball back over to the offense, which scored to drive the final nail in Permian's coffin.

Against El Paso Irvin in the area round of the playoffs, the defense gave up 382 yards passing, but picked off two passes, recovered one fumble and held the Rockets to minus-2 yards rushing on 22 carries. Jason Flores, the leading rusher in El Paso, was held to minus-5 yards on eight carries.

In the win over Flower Mound Marcus, David O'Shields came up with a big interception at the end of the first half to preserve Cooper's 20-16 halftime advantage.

And last week against Richardson Lake Highlands, Roy Strahan forced and recovered a fumble on the first play of overtime, setting up Cooper's semifinal win. The Cooper defense also recovered two other fumbles in the game.

"I think the one thing that people might overlook is that their defense has been as important as Dominic's play," Abilene High head coach Steve Warren said. "Their defense has put them in a position to be successful."

Offensively the Cougars were the most balanced team in District 4-5A, and that balance has helped the Cougars in their playoff run.

In five playoff games, Cooper has rolled up 1,661 total yards, 887 on the ground and 774 passing, almost perfect balance.

The running game has really carried the Cougars in the last two-thirds of the season.

Through the first five games, Cooper had just 719 yards rushing (143.8 per game), but in the last 10 it has 1,821 (182.1 per game).

"Their running game really came together in the second half of our game," said Warren, whose team lost to Cooper, 31-3. "And since then, nobody's stopped it. Once they got things rolling, and got Dominic going, they've been extremely tough."

Cooper has also stayed away from the big turnovers.

The Cougars have turned the ball over only six times in the playoffs, and three of those came last week against Lake Highlands.

The Cougars have also had their share of "good fortune," as Gaines calls it.

In the bi-district win over Amarillo High, Rhodes took a draw play on the final play of the game and went 57 yards for a touchdown to win the game, 20-14. And in the semifinal win, Lake Highlands quarterback Davaren Hightower - one of the most dangerous players in the state - re-aggravated a hairline fracture in his right tibia, and left the game for good midway through the second quarter.

Without his speed to worry about at quarterback, the Cougars were able to concentrate on stopping the other two options - the fullback and the pitch - in the Lake Highlands wishbone offense.

"You've got to have some luck to win six straight in the playoffs," said Gaines, who led Permian to the 5A state title in 1989. "I prefer to call it good fortune as opposed to luck. Good teams seem to be luckier than the poor team, and a lot of that is because they make their own luck."

And finally, the Cougars believe they can win. It's not a cocky, arrogant belief, but rather a quiet confidence that has shown up in so many big spots throughout the season.

"They're playing with a lot of confidence right now, and that's something you have to have when you get that far," Gaines said. "They believe they can win, and we're hoping they win it all."