COOPER FOOTBALL

LUBBOCK — The Cooper Cougars turned to the elements to exorcise its Demons.
Davon Riddick, Kendrick Powdrill and Alford Cooper — nicknamed Earth, Wind and Fire respectively — combined for 335 yards and four touchdowns as the Cougars expelled the Dumas Demons 52-14 in a Class 4A Division I bidistrict playoff game Saturday at Lowrey Field.

“That’s pretty good,” Cooper coach Mike Spradlin said. “Of course, that doesn’t happen without our guys up front. I think our receivers did a great job of blocking on the perimeter. We ran some stretches and things like that.

“Boy, that’s what I’ve been saying about those three guys. They’ve all got special talents and special things they do. I was real proud of what they did today. All three of them.”

Cooper (8-3) plays El Paso Del Valle (9-2) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in a second-round playoff game at Grande Communications Center in Midland.

Last year, Cooper beat Del Valle 56-10 in the second round in Odessa.
Saturday’s game will be the first of a doubleheader. Abilene High plays El Paso Coronado at 1 p.m.

Riddick (aka Earth) buried Dumas with a game-high 132 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries, including 120 yards on eight carries in the first half.

“It was really exciting, and I was kind of nervous at first, because it’s my first playoff game,” he said. “But once I got going, it was just another game.”

Cooper (aka Fire) burned the Demons for 119 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, including 98 yards on 11 carries in the first half.

“It was pretty fun doing what we do,” Cooper said. “Coach was talking to us before the game, just do it like we do in practice. Just run.”And Powdrill (aka Wind) breezed to 84 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. Overall, the Coogs rolled up 399 yards and seven touchdowns rushing. Quarterback Ryan Heslep, Sammy Beall and Derrick Footer each ran for touchdowns.
“We can throw the ball,” Heslep said. “But when the running game’s working and you’re pounding a team like that, you might as well stick with it, especially if we can get a win.”

The Coogs didn’t do too badly passing the ball either. Heslep completed 16-of-24 passes for 184 yards and no interceptions. Khole Jackson had five catches for 67 yards and Reese Williams had five more for 60 yards.

The Coogs, who had 583 total yards, scored on their first six possessions, including all five in the first half, as they cruised to a 38-0 lead.

Riddick scored the Coogs’ first two touchdowns on runs of 39 and 11 yards — the latter on a fourth-and-goal play to start the second quarter.

Ryan Lucas booted a 25-yard field goal, and Cooper and Heslep each ran for a touchdown of 4 and 5 yards respectively for a 31-0 halftime lead.

After Powdrill got a 5-yard touchdown run on Cooper’s first possession of the second half, Dumas (4-7) answered with consecutive touchdowns. Backup quarterback Clayton Baker hooked up with Andres Baskin for TD passes of 31 and 35 yards.

Baker, who took over for starter Aaron Thomas late in the first half, completed 15-of-34 passes for 234 yards — including four for 62 yards to Thomas.
The Demons had just 39 yards rushing.

The Coogs got two fourth-quarter touchdown runs — a 9-yarder on a reverse by Beall and a 7-yarder from Footer.

Dumas has primarily been a running team this season, and Spradlin said the Coogs didn’t expect that kind of passing effort from the Demons. “It caught us off guard a little bit,” he said. “We didn’t handle it as well as we’d like to, but we knuckled down and went to back to work and things worked out well.”

Dumas 0 0 14 0—14
Cooper 7 24 7 14—52

Joey Richards