Region I Game of the Week (8): Muleshoe at Lubbock Cooper

[Da Mules]

This Friday night at Lubbock Cooper. If Cooper wins, they have almost a lock on 2-3a district title. If da Mules win, they have the edge for the D2 1st place playoff bracket.
Cooper is very likely going to go D1, unless Levelland can beat Littlefield. Unless the Lobo's run defense stiffens up, that ain't gonna happen.
This should be a humdinger of a game. Last year, Cooper's big O line pushed the smaller Mules down the field when it really counted, and thus left the fair city of Muleshoe with the 2-3a championship firmly in hand. Da Mules didn't take very kindly to this, and have had a year to reflect on it. Cooper has developed quite the running game after a slow start this season, but this year's Mules have a very tough defense, and one of the top 3a offenses on the South Plains. You can be sure both teams will be fired up for this rematch.
I think it oughta be the R1 game of the week; what do you guys say?

[mulefan]

i think your right. i also believe we will be coming home 8-0. they are not as good as last year and we are better than last year.
pediction mules 35 cooper 14

[GWOOD]

Hard to say how this game might go from an outsider's view point. Muleshoe seems to get better and better each week. Lubbock Cooper started out slow by getting beat real bad by Sweetwater and then improved drastically, except for Canyon game. Not sure what they did but they turned it around.

Muleshoe is undefeated and has only given up 44 points in 7 games. Lubbock Cooper is home and has played a much tougher schedule.

Comparison scores:

9/16 Muleshoe 28 Seminole 9
9/23 Lubbock Cooper 35 Seminole 21

10/7 Muleshoe 49 Levelland 15
10/14 Lubbock Cooper 42 Levelland 14


Region 1 Game of the Week? Don't know who else is playing but this one has got to be one of the top ones.

[mulefan]

I JUST HOPE THE GAME WILL NOT BE DECIDED BY THE REFS. I HOPE THEY LET THE KIDS PLAY. AT LEAST CALL IT THE SAME FOR BOTH.

[Da Mules]

Well if we outplay them, we'll win anyway. But you're right; over the past 4-5 seasons, that place comes to mind as one of the very worst for homer refs.

[strata_0]

Is it a little early in the week to be worried about the refs?

[football4life]

Just a guess, but I'm thinkin that this game will involve a whole lot of rushing yards. Cooper piled them up on us, but our defense was able to bend and not break. Gotta watch out for their QB though, he's a beast runnin the ball. I'll say Cooper 28- Mules 27.

[Chunkthepill]

Muleshoe has great stats but they haven't played anybody all year long. Patsy schedule

[mulefan]

WELL COOPER, LEVELLAND, SWEETWATER, AND SNYDER HAVE ALL PLAYED PROBABLY BETTER TEAMS BUT DOES THAT REALLY TELL YOU MUCH ABOUT THEM? THEY ARE ALL UNPREDICTABLE. ALL HAVE PLAYED SOME CLOSE GAMES WHEN WE THOUGHT A BLOWOUT. I THINK THAT ANY TEAM HERE CAN GO FAR AND IF YOU TAKE ONE LIGHTLY YOU WILL GO HOME A LOSER. EVERYONE SAYS THE SAME ABOUT MONAHANS SCHEDULE BUT I GUARANTEE YOU THAT THE MULES, CANYON, MONAHANS, LITTLEFIELD, BORGER OR PERRYTON CAN PLAY THE RANKED TEAMS STEP FOR STEP. TAKE IT ONE GAME AT A TIME BECAUSE IF YOU GET CAUGHT UP WITH HOW THEY BEAT THE OTHER OR HOW THEY DIDNT YOU WILL GET OUTPLAYED!

[Da Mules]

These two teams are pretty much a mirror of each other:

Canyon fellow is right.. Pirate QB Trey Wood can get behind his hogs and really run the ball. He's a better QB than either of the Finch boys that Cooper had in the past few years, and he can sling it too. He's also a pretty good linebacker. FB Jerome Cook is a hoss; he has put up a lot of yards, and is a handful to bring down. Cooper's defense is improving every game.

For da Mules, junior QB Jeff Hamilton is in his 3rd year as starter. He had to take over the starting job as a freshman, and has really benefited from the past two years. He'x extremely quick & has a good arm. RB Brady Black is currently the leading 3A rusher in the Panhandle-South Plains area, and has an unbelieveable stiff arm. Brady is a D1 prospect at DB.

However you want to cut it... I still nominate this one for the Region 1 game of the week. So somebody please put up a poll already. :clap: :clap:

[LH Panther Mom]

District 2: Muleshoe Mules vs Cooper Pirates

Da Mules, are currently 7-0 & on the dwindling undefeated list. QB Hamilton is 52/94 for 876 yds, 5 td's and only 3 interceptions; add to that 532 rushing yds for 6 td's. He's joined by TB Black, who has 838 rushing yds (114 att) and 15 td's and WR Gonzales.

Da Pirates are 5-3 (2-0 in district). QB Woods is 41/95 for 607 yds, 5 td's and 7 interceiptions. He also has 857 yds rushing, 15 td's. RB J. Cooks adds 888 yds rushing and 15 td's with WR's Santoyo (5 td's) and Ehlers (1 td) join Woods on the offense.

Common opponents are Seminole (Mules 28-9, Pirates 35-21) and Levelland (Mules 49-15, Pirates 42-14). The winner of this game will have a playoff spot.

Thoughts? Predictions?


*Disclaimer: stats & players come from another site, so don't shoot the messenger if they're not accurate.*

[mulefan]

PREDICTION MULES 35-14 WE HAVE MORE WEAPONS THEN THEY DO. COOPER IS TOUGH BUT WE WILL BE READY FOR THE CHALLENGE.

[NateDawg39]

Muleshoe by a small margin of victory. 32-27

[Lost @ BOB]

I was just wondering what had happened to Brant Hamilton seeing as Duh Mules said that this week's starting QB for Muleshoe would be Jeff Hamilton. Also, will running back Jamar Cooks be playing for Cooper, or will Jerome "I do not go to Cooper" Cook be getting the majority of carries from the backfield? Thanks for your helpful info.

[Snyder_TigerFan]

I think Lubbock Cooper comes away with an upset in this one, only because I think their tougher schedule has helped them more. They're a salty team, and they have a home field advantage. This will be the best team that Muleshoe has faced yet, guess we'll see how they handle 'em. Maybe I'm wrong.

[DaHop72]

I haven't seen Muleshoe play but they better be ready. That Woods kid is a hoss. I guess I'll go with the Pirates as well.

[Da Mules]

article from today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Cooper's Calderon excels with brains as well as brawn
BY GEORGE WATSON
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL


Forget the days of big, dumb linemen.

The time when the front five just lined up and blocked a certain way no matter what the defense showed is over. Nowadays, the offensive line must make just as many pre-snap adjustments as the rest of the offense, meaning the offensive line is not just made up of the five biggest guys who can't run or catch the ball.

In that aspect, Cooper senior center Randy Calderon is one of the area's best and currently leads an offensive unit that averages 374.3 yards per game.

"Our team has been working really hard, and the backfield has been running really well," Calderon said. "We ran good this past week and everybody was ready to play. We just have to go all out on every play and we all know what to do then."

The Pirates certainly went all out in improving to 2-0 in District 2-3A (5-3 overall), rushing for 326 yards in a 42-14 throttling of Levelland on Friday. Once again showing the way was Calderon, who graded at 98 percent and had just one negative play out of 53 offensive snaps. On defense, he made four tackles and caused a fumble. His overall performance earned him this week's Avalanche-Journal City Player of the Week honor.

"We knew going into the season that Randy would be our most experienced of all our offensive linemen and had been through all the battles. He would be the centerpiece of the line, and that's why he's playing center," Cooper coach John Windham said. "Those guys follow his lead, and he's the captain of that group and gets it going."

Not only does Calderon do it physically, but he does it mentally as well, Windham said. As the center, Calderon is responsible for Cooper's line calls, meaning it is his job to decipher what scheme the defensive line and linebackers are in and call the best offensive blocking scheme to defeat the defense. It's not just hiking the ball and blowing people off the line, although that does help.

"It has evolved into a situation where you need some of your brightest kids on the line with all the defensive schemes and shifting around," Windham said. "Our kids have rules to block and they can block any front. We feel comfortable that anything the defense shows us we will be able to block that first series, then adjust and make the right calls from then on. And the center is the one who has to know all those different defenses."

For Calderon, however, nothing changes but the desire to lead the Pirates to consecutive District 2-3A championships.

"We won the district and we knew it would be hard to do it again," Calderon said. "But we want to take it over again and keep the tradition going with another title."

The biggest roadblock to that repeat comes this week as Cooper hosts Muleshoe (7-0, 1-0) at Pirate Stadium in Woodrow. These two teams decided the 2-3A title last year, with Cooper prevailing for its first district title in more than 30 years. Calderon is intent on not making the school wait quite so long for another.

"I think our offensive and defensive lines match up pretty well against Muleshoe," Calderon said. "We should run the ball a lot and get some touchdowns out of that, but defensively we've got to be ready, too."

Windham knows that winning the game will start up front. He is confident in his group and, especially, its leader.

"They look to him and his mental approach and his confidence and they feed off that," Windham said of the rest of the line. "They have a lot of confidence right now in what they're doing and how to get the job done

[Snyder_TigerFan]

Any score updates?

[Da Mules]

Cooper wins 20-6. Congrats to Cooper, their big O and D lines ran over the smaller Mules nearly all night. Pirate QB Wood is a load! He had a good game with about 150 yards rushing. Pirates defense was very good; held RB Brady Black to about 60 yards, and QB Hamilton to about 50. Not good, not good.

Overall, da Mules pretty much choked..had several motion penalties that hurt them bad... had to call time-out twice when punting with only 10 men on the field... did not have their heads in it.. too tight.. can't believe they let the big-game tension get to them like that.

Frankly, the reffin' sucked. If you're from Cooper, you prolly thought it was pretty damn good. I thought it was typical Cooper home-cookin. The first play of the game, Cooper had a late hit after the whistle right in front of the back ref, I mean he about had to step around it, and he didn't flag it... kinda showed us what to expect the rest of the night. The ball spots, the non-calls, etc. all went Cooper's way. But not that it would have won the game anyways. Cooper just ran over da Mules.

Da Mules did hang tough. With about 5 minutes left, Muleshoe made a goal line stand and stopped Cooper on the 5-yard line with the score 14-6. Then drove down to the Cooper 20, and had a chance to tie it up with about 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter, but dropped a wide-open pass on the half-back option play that would have scored, then got more penalties to absolutely kill the drive. Cooper took over on downs with about 2 minutes left, and drove nearly 80 yards to score, and finished up 20-6. I wasn't too proud of the Mule D on that last drive; I kinda think they were hoping the clock would just run out. Oh well, it's just a game played by kids. I'll bet you any odds the sun still comes up tomorrow morning :)

So congrats Pirates, you're gonna be 2-3a champs again this year, and you earned it. Good luck in the playoffs. :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Da Mules]

ttt

[strata_0]

Did you read the paper? The flags were the same!! One thing that stands out is the offensive plays ran. I agree the O and D lines were very dominating. Good luck against the Cubs.

[Da Mules]

sometimes it's the non-flags that get yer goat, Strata. But like I said, the zebras didn't determine. Your big linemen did an outstanding job, and that game was won in the trenches. So you've earned the title this year.

I think Littlefield is gonna handle Levelland. You've played em both.. what do you think?

[football4life]

I'll be pullin for levelland, but i think littlefield has just a little bit more goin for them. I would rather play levelland in the first round than cooper, because its tough to beat a solid team twice. congrats cooper, but don't gloat too much.

[send 'em all]

I think Littlefield will beat Levelland. I can't see Levellands defense stopping Littlefield.

[strata_0]

Thanks da Mules, the kids have earned every bit of this one. Nobody really gave them a chance to repeat.

I agree! The cats will be to much for levelland.

[mulefan]

congrats pirates. since you are possibly going d1 give em hell. you guys earned the win. it showed us we have lots to work on.

[Da Mules]

Nobody really gave them a chance to repeat.

Heck, even your hometown paper picked Cooper in 4th place.
Where did all of those big linemen come from... JV or did they just add 50 lbs in the off-season :D

[send 'em all]

Thank you! We will do the best we can. Looks like we will be facing Canyon again. Hopefully we will have a little better luck this time. We lost two linemen to graduation. So one of them is from J.V. the other was a TE last year. We just have an excellent line coach and kids who work their butts off for him.