Westlake's Keah played a big part in win

By BILL HART / Senior Staff Writer

IRVING - The Austin Westlake football coaches made sure Tomi Keah ate a good breakfast Saturday morning.

He didn't before the Chaparrals' bi-district win over San Antonio Churchill and had a poor game.

They should buy him a big steak - or anything he wants after he ate Cooper's lunch in Westlake's 55-15 victory in the Class 5A Division II championship game at Texas Stadium.

He had three pass interceptions - the total he had picked off in the 15 previous games - and recovered a fumble, giving him two for the season.

One interception in the end zone just before halftime ended a Cooper drive when the Cougars were threatening to break a 7-7 tie.

The fumble came on a kickoff that was recovered at the Cougars' 3-yard line led to a touchdown that made it 28-7 with 4:56 left in the third quarter.

"When we played Churchill, I didn't have a good game because I didn't have any energy," Keah said.

"All I had was a sandwich and I didn't really want that. The coaches really got on me and have stayed on me, so this morning, I had pancakes and bacon, but they wouldn't let me eat a bagel about 10 minutes before we ran out on the field. I wanted to have a lot of energy today."

His biggest play came in the waning seconds of the first half when Cooper was driving after Westlake had tied the score. Cooper quarterback Michael Anderson threw to Miles Durham, but Keah stepped in front of him for the interception.

"I didn't have time to think on that play," Keah said. "They ran a fade pattern and I was able to jump in front of the receiver and get it. They floated a lot of their passes today and that gave me time to gather myself."

Keah said he wasn't surprised that Miles Durham was at receiver and the man he'd cover most of the afternoon, but he was surprised that Cooper threw as much to him as they did because he was coming off an injury.

"Normally, we play a zone 80 percent of the time, but today, we went man-to-man about 60," he said. "They were running the quick pattern and we switched to the man to protect against the underneath passes that had hurt us in the first half."

Cooper's championship game record eight turnovers led to its downfall, but Westlake also played strong defensively.

"I've been asked if this was our best defensive team ever, but I wouldn't answer that until today," said Westlake defensive coordinator Derek Long, whose in-laws, Bill and Paula Ford, live in Abilene and he plans to visit them in a few days. "My feeling is that when you hold a team to less points than we score, that's the best (defense). But we played well today.

"Our strategy was to stop No. 33 (Dominic Rhodes). He's a great running back. We've faced four all-state backs this year, but Rhodes is better than any we've seen.

"We put in some new wrinkles at halftime and we added a new front, but we never used it. We just told the guys to execute. Turnovers are such a factor in these-type games and when things do wrong, they seem to snowball. We know Cooper is a much better team that what happened today."

Westlake turned five of the Cooper mistakes into touchdowns and the recovery by Keah that gave the Chaparrals a 21-point lead seemed to take everything out of the Cougars.

"Jeremy (Amos) caused the fumble, then I saw the ball on the ground and all I wanted to do was get into the end zone with it," Keah said. "I didn't know you couldn't advance it (ruled a muff). " Rhodes' 82-yard was the only second-half breakdown in the Westlake defense, but by then, the Chaparrals were ahead, 48-9.

"We made a few adjustments at halftime, going to the man defense and playing tighter inside," said linebacker Jeff White, who spent most of the second half on the sidelines with an ankle injury. "The coaches told us that this was our last chance to do it (win state) and that this was no time to get down. Then after we made it 28-7, I felt the momentum going our way. " Injuries plagued the Chaparrals, who also lost top rusher Bret Robin to a knee injury late in the second half, but Jamie Tyler picked up the slack, rushing 24 times for 127 yards and two touchdowns.

'As he was leaving the field, Bret said 'get me a gold ring, that's what we came here to do,' " said Tyler, whose most carries in a previous game was 15. "I've been our inside runner all year, but when he got hurt, our linemen stepped up their play and I stepped mine up a notch. In the second half, we figured which way to run and block. I never expected us to win by this much. " "We have a lot of confidence in Bradfield Heiser (Robin's replacement), said quarterback Drew Brees, who threw two touchdown passes and ran for three more. "We knew he could do the job and we rallied around him.

"But Tomi gets my vote as the most valuable player today. He had an incredible game. Most teams don't throw much his way, but Cooper did and he made them pay. " Although he didn't score a touchdown, Westlake receiver Ryan Read caught three passes, giving him 108 for the season, breaking the state all-time single season receiving record of 106 held by Nassar Ayyad of Arlington High.