Cooper Review - Page 2BThursday, Nov. 15, 2012

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Survival of the Fittest: Cooper advances into postseason

Sports

By Cindy RollerEditor The key to last Friday’s game was survival – survival of the fittest. The Cooper Bull-dogs punched their ticket to the postseason with a victory over the hosting Rivercrest Rebels 30-10. The (5-5, 4-2) Bulldogs won the game by winning the turnover battle, only turning over the ball once and forc-ing four by the Rebels. Cooper will face the (7-2-1) Leonard Tigers in the first round of playoff action this Friday at Texas A&M University-Com-merce Memorial Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Following the coin toss, Cooper’s Darmarcus Robin-son earned enough yards to get the ball out to the 21 yard line. Carries by Demetrius Wilkins and Jermey Mims cleared the way for Robinson to secure a first down. Grant Sepulveda had a 17 yard run to move Cooper into Rivercrest terri-tory. At the 9:37 mark a Coo-per’s fumble was recovered by Rivercrest, and the Rebels uti-lized the airways with quarter-

back Erik Richards hitting tar-get Markevius Traylor and then handed off to Aaron Whitney for another first down. Another Richards’ pass found Wesley Davidson. Richards ignited the sky with his 47-yard bomb to Traylor for the first score of the night. Blake Hollingsworth booted the PAT good for the 7-0 lead for the Rebels. At their own 29 Cooper’s second play consisted of quar-terback Kasey Leatherwood with the bootleg pass to find Robinson for a 31 yard gain. Unfortunately, the drive stalled, and Cooper punted. On the ensuing punt Rich-ards fielded it at his own eight yard line. He was hit by Mims, who forced the fumble and re-covered possession for Cooper. Mims was a defensive star with six tackles, two forced fumbles, two recovered fumbles and one interception. Cooper took over, and on third down Robinson profited with an eight-yard dash into the end zone. Robinson led the team with 107 yards on 16 carries, two touchdowns. He is

the second leading rusher with 681 yards on the season. On the point after attempt a high snap left Colby Earley to think quickly with a pass which was broken up leaving Cooper one point shy, 7-6. On Rivercrest’s third pos-session at their own 21, multi-ple mistakes plagued the drive combined with a powerful sack by Brandan Chandler to set the Rebels up at third and 26 at their own five yard line. Rich-

ards hit Traylor for a 23 yard gain but was stopped short of the first down. Traylor had 125 yards on just five receptions and two touchdowns. With the 24 yard punt Cooper took over at their own 48 yard line. Short runs by Mims and Robinson moved action in the second quarter. On third down Leatherwood found Jordan Sil-livan down the right side for a 38 yard pickup. It gave the Bulldogs a first and goal at the

10 yard line. Mims finished the work scoring from three yards. Mims had 48 yards on 18 car-ries and two scores. He contin-ues to lead the team closing in on 1,000 yards with 985 thus far. With the two-point conver-sion by Robinson Cooper took the lead 14-7. Rivercrest continued to battle with penalties and incomplete passes before forced to punt. Back at their own 14, short runs by Sepulveda and Robin-

son gave Leatherwood room to punt as well. The 34-yard punt gave the Rebels good position at midfield. A pass to Whitney was sniffed out by Bulldog Austen Blakley for a five yard loss. Two plays later Richards’ screen pass to Whitney put Rivercrest at the Bulldogs’ 38 yard line. Several plays later

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