Mustangs Next Opponent

By Lew
November 13, 2004

Cooper wallops Borger in bi-district
BY JEFF WALKER
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL


PLAINVIEW — Cooper's history-making season continued on Friday night at Bulldog Stadium.

Trey Wood's interception stopped a Borger drive, and Josh Barnett took the next play 85 yards for a touchdown as the Pirates knocked off the Bulldogs, 32-14, in a Class 3A bi-district playoff. Cooper will next face Sweetwater in the area round next week, a team it defeated 17-14 earlier this season.

The Pirates (9-2) have now won district and bi-district titles for the first time since 1972 in successive weeks.

"That was a big one," Cooper head coach John Windham said of the interception. "If they would have scored there that would have given them all the momentum and it would have been tight the rest of the way. That was a big-time play by Trey, and I know he wanted to redeem himself after the fumble in the first quarter."

Wood's first-quarter fumble led to Borger's only touchdown until the Bulldogs tacked one on at the end of the game when the outcome already was decided.

After the Bulldogs (4-6) grabbed the early momentum with the turnover and score, Cooper answered quickly with an eight-play drive that ended with a five-yard run by Bradley Madison.

Cooper forced a punt on Borger's next possession, and the Pirates took the lead for good when Trace Gurss took a trap up the middle for seven yards to give Cooper a 14-7 advantage with 5:14 to go in the second quarter.

The Pirates' drive used 13 plays, covered 73 yards and took 6:28 off the clock.

The Cooper offensive line did a great job all night opening holes for the Pirates' running attack. Cooper finished the game with 404 rushing yards.

Madison, who scored three touchdowns on runs of 5, 1 and 14 yards, finished the first half with 122 of his 204 rushing yards. As a team, Cooper had 164 total yards in the first half.

Borger, meanwhile, struggled to move the ball against the Cooper defense. The Bulldogs finished the opening half with 67 total yards, which was only four more yards than Madison had on the Pirates' second touchdown drive.

"Our offensive line did a great job," Wood said. "When they're on, they're awesome and they've been on for the last six or seven games. You've got to give them all the credit, because we don't get anything without the offensive line."

Borger took the second-half kickoff and appeared to be going in to tie the score.

Marcus Vidrine, who scored the Bulldogs' first touchdown on a 1-yard run, drove his offense to the Cooper 18-yard line. Facing a second-and-8 situation, Vidrine dropped back and tried to loft a pass over the middle. Wood wondered over from his linebacker spot and picked it off at the Cooper five-yard line to stop the drive.

"Really, I just dropped back and the ball came right to me," Wood said. "I was pretty lucky but it was a great team effort for us to get the win."

COOPER 32, BORGER 14

Cooper 7 7 6 12 — 32

First quarter

BOR — Marcus Vidrine 1 run (Jordan McKinney kick) 6:09

COO — Bradley Madison 5 run (Jakob Cunningham kick) 2:52

Second quarter

COO — Trace Gurss 7 run (Cunningham kick) 5:14

Third quarter

COO — Josh Barnett 85 run (kick failed) 10:12

Fourth quarter

COO — Madison 1 run (run failed) 8:56

COO — Madison 14 run (kick failed) 5:03

BOR — Bobby Russell 2 run (McKinney kick) 1:43

BOR COO

First downs 19 23

Rushes-yds. 28-86 49-405

Passing yards 126 18

C-A-I 13-30-1 2-6-0

Punts-yds. 4-29.5 1-30

Fumbles-lost 1-0 4-1

Penalties-yds. 4-30 4-45

Individual statistics

Rushing — Borger, Bobby Russell, 17-67, Marcus Vidrine, 9-15, Ricardo Gonzales, 1-1, Steven Johnson, 1-3; Cooper, Bradley Madison, 25-204, Trace Gurss, 7-50, Josh Barnett, 4-95, Cory Cleveland, 5-20, Howell Finch, 3-(-3), Trey Wood, 5-39

Passing — Borger, Vidrine, 13-30-1, 126 0 TD; Cooper, Finch, 1-3-0, 4 0 TD; Wood, 1-3-0 14 0 TD

Receiving — Borger, Dustin Tindall, 2-28, Kellen Lane, 7-80, Matt Davis, 2-19, Steven Johnson, 1-(-1); Cooper, Madison, 1-14, Barnett, 1-4

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