Cooper’s speed too much for Panthers

Posted 10/14/21

Take the fastest two players on the field. Put one at quarterback and the other in the slot. Then run the quarterback option and the jet-sweep over and over and over again. That sums up the Cooper Bulldogs, who came to Alba-Golden and went home with a 52-19 win.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Cooper’s speed too much for Panthers

Posted

Take the fastest two players on the field. Put one at quarterback and the other in the slot. Then run the quarterback option and the jet-sweep over and over and over again. That sums up the Cooper Bulldogs, who came to Alba-Golden and went home with a 52-19 win.

Cooper scored on eight of ten possessions and rolled up nearly 600 yards of total offense. Largely they did it with throw-back football – forcing the defensive edges to commit to the quarterback option and alternatively simply racing to the sideline and turning upfield.  

The score was 32-6 at the half. However, in that first half, Alba-Golden drove the ball deep into Bulldog territory on two occasions. A turnover-on-downs at the Cooper 10-yard line and another at the Cooper 13-yard line were opportunities left begging. 

With the Panther offense coming up empty, Cooper just kept coming. The visitors have a solid football team with few weaknesses. They played excellent positional football and were very athletic, especially their line groups on both sides of the ball. 

The Panthers never threw in the towel; they contested every yard.

As the first half was drawing to a close, Alba-Golden took over on their own 25. Shawn Gaskill carried for a first down out to the 46. Nick Hallman made a nice reactive catch along the sideline on a pass which took a deflection, and the Panthers moved into Bulldog territory again.

Gaskill went over the right side to convert a fourth-and-1. On the next play, Easton Campbell connected with Jerry Skinner on a post route down to the 11-yard line. Sixteen seconds remained. 

Two plays later, Campbell hit Skinner in the southeast end zone for a score. Skinner made an excellent catch, going up strong and bringing the ball down over the top of a defender. At the half the score stood 32-6.

The second half began with Alba-Golden forcing Cooper to turn the ball over on downs. The Panthers had their best defensive series of the game with great stops by Shawn and Michael Gaskill, Thai Peterson and Braylon Moffett.

Alba-Golden could not, however, move the ball and punted it back to the visitors. Cooper then resorted to their stand-bys, scoring on a jet-sweep and a quarterback option.

Alba-Golden came back to score twice in the fourth quarter. Capping a 65-yard drive, Shawn Gaskill scored on a 32-yard ramble through the left side, breaking three tackles on the run. 

On the next drive, Blake Weissert scored from three yards out on a short drive which was set up by a Donald McVay kick-off return to midfield. 

Those two scores were all heart, as the game had been long decided. 

The Panthers have a bye Friday. They finish their season by visiting Rivercrest Oct. 22, hosting Honey Grove Oct. 29 and at Como-Pickton Nov. 5.