Coogs beat P
Joe Dillard calls them Doom and Boom. Together, they cast a gloom on Odessa Permian’s night.
Davon Riddick, otherwise known as Doom, ran for 215 yards and three touchdowns, and Boom — Alford Cooper — ran for 171 yards and two touchdowns to spark the Coogs to a 34-27 victory over the Panthers in a District 3-5A game Friday at Shotwell Stadium.
“It was a crazy night,” Riddick said. “Coaches kept on calling running plays, and we had to execute. We did our thing. We blocked for each other, ran for each other. We did our best.”
The Coogs rolled up 402 yards rushing, while throwing for only 74 to remain unbeaten at 7-0 overall and 2-0 in their return to the Little Southwest Conference.
“They chose to drop deep,” Cooper coach Mike Spradlin said about the Permian defense. “They had our outside guys manned up with deep safeties over the top of them. There wasn’t a whole lot there, but we were able to exploit the running game.”
A week after giving up 52 points to Midland Lee in the district opener, Cooper’s defense rose to the occasion in the second half, stopping Permian on its first two possessions. That allowed the Coogs to break open a one-point game with touchdown runs of 45 and 16 yards by Cooper and Riddick, respectively, in the third quarter.
“It was pretty fun, carrying the load with Davon, going back and forth, challenging each other,” Cooper said. “The O-line did great and the defense, too.”
Permian (4-3, 0-2) pulled within a touchdown on Van Powell’s third touchdown pass of the night — a 11-yarder from Landry Serrano with 8:40 left in the game.
The Panthers would force Cooper to punt and get the ball back with 5:31 remaining. They drove from their own 20 down to the Coogs’ 11-yard line. Facing a fourth-and-6 play from the 11, Dillard sacked Landry, who fumbled the ball. Jamar Renfro picked up the loose ball and returned it 71 yards down to the Permian 2 — sealing the victory.
“If I could script it for our team, I think it was really cool that we were able to win that game on defense.” Spradlin said. “We were reeling a little bit from last week.”
The Coogs scored on the first play from scrimmage — a 74-yard touchdown run by Cooper.
However, Serrano, who threw for 351 yards on the night, came back to throw touchdown passes of 13 and 65 yards to Powell to make it 14-7 with 4:41 left in the first quarter, and DeAnthony Fay ran two yards for another Permian touchdown early in the second quarter. The Coogs blocked the extra point, but the Panthers were cruising at 20-7.
However, Riddick answered with touchdown runs of 45 and five yards — the last with 4:39 remaining in the half — to help the Coogs take a 21-20 lead at the half.
The Coogs dodged a bullet when Talon Smith turned in a 45-yard pass play down to the Cooper 2, but fumbled the ball out of the end zone, giving the ball back to the Coogs just 1:24 before halftime.
The Coogs’ defense stepped up in the second half by stopping Permian on a 4th-and-2 play from the Coogs 18 on the first drive of the half, while Josh Bowman got his fourth interception of the season on the next possession. Cooper got touchdown runs of 45 and 16 yards, respectively, after each stop.
And after Permian closed within seven on Serrano’s third touchdown pass of the night, the defense stepped up again to preserve the victory.
“We had some set backs last week, but we had to make up for them, work hard in practice and come out and execute,” Dillard said. “We got it done tonight.”
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