In the end, the only thing the Bulldawgs stopped was themselves.
Cove committed five turnovers and gained a season-low 80 yards rushing as the Pirates took a 23-7 victory in a Class 5A Division II state semifinal in front of an overflow crowd at Waco ISD Stadium on Saturday night.
The Pirates (13-2) advanced to play Katy for the state championship at 2 p.m. Saturday at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Bulldawgs end their season at 13-2.
“To think we’d be 13-2 and in the semifinals of 5A after losing everyone we lost last year, I think most people laugh if I said that at the beginning of the year,” Cove coach Jack Welch said. “But we have a lot to be proud of. The kids have a lot to be proud of and I am proud of them.”
After advancing to and losing back-to-back Division I state title games in 4A, the Bulldawgs weren’t expected to go as far as they did after returning to 5A and losing most of their starters to graduation, including quarterback Robert Griffin (Baylor) and running back Troy Vital (Idaho).
But the thing that might bite the Dawgs even more than the loss is just the poor showing in their final game. Despite the turnovers, Cove never really was out of the game until the fourth quarter.
“Turnovers were the key,” Welch said. “We were trying to make things happen and had the turnovers. In a game like this you can’t have that. You go back and replay the game and I think we can win it (if) we don’t have those turnovers.”
There was an early indication of the Bulldawgs’ troubles when on their first possession, facing a fourth-and-2 situation on their 49-yard line, they set up in punt formation. But they had no intention of punting.
Instead the snap went to Tanner Brock, who was going to fake a handoff to a motion man then run to his right in open field. The only problem was that Brock fumbled the ball on the fake, and by the time he recovered it the Pirates had him cornered.
“That was a momentum change of the game early,” Brock said. “ I took my eye off the ball. It was going to be a sweep to the other side. It was wide open and they couldn’t have stopped it. So that’s on me.”
Wylie moved from the 47 to the 18 in nine plays, then had to settle for a 36-yard field goal from Zac Ohannessian for the first score of the game with 6:28 left in the first quarter.
“Our defense kept us in the ballgame,” Welch said. “We put our defense in a bad position and I thought they responded well. (Wylie) could have had two more touchdowns.”
The Pirates increased the lead to 10-0 on their next drive with a 69-yard run by quarterback Jerod Monk, who had open field on an option keeper to his left.
After the Bulldawg defense stepped up twice and Ohannessian missed two consecutive field goals, Cove’s offense finally found some life.
With Cove starting from its 20 before moving back to the 11 on back-to-back sacks, Bulldawgs quarterback Nick Greene threw to Tommy McLeain for a 35-yard gain up the middle for a first down. Then Brelan Chancellor ran an end trap for a gain of 6 and followed with the same play for a 45-yard touchdown run to tighten the gap to 10-7 after Michael Roell’s extra point.
Cove’s defense forced another three-and-out but its then gave it right back. Greene, trying to escape pressure, fired a pass down the sideline that Zach Lowe intercepted and returned to the Cove 20. Five plays later, Nick Knott ran it in from a yard out to increase the lead to 17-7 with 38 seconds left in the half.
“They were very aggressive,” Greene said of Wylie’s defense. “Our linemen had a difficult time staying on the blocks and they made it difficult for me to get my reads and find holes.”
Chancellor, who had 80 yards on 11 carries, was the only real running threat the Bulldawgs had offered. Their two 1,000-yard rushers, juniors Will Wright and Brandin Byrd, combined for minus-5 yards on eight carries.
So when the second half started, the Pirates keyed in on Chancellor. On Cove’s opening drive he took a handoff for 5 yards but then gave it right back on second down and finally lost a fumble, giving the Pirates the ball on the Cove 21.
Wylie settled for a field goal to go up 20-7 and then, after eventually forcing a Cove punt, iced the game with a 19-play drive that started with 2:13 left in the third and ended with a 34-yard field goal with 4:08 left in the game.
“That was awesome offense right there,” Howard said. “That was eight minutes of clock in the fourth quarter to get three points. I’m proud of what those guys did there.”
Welch knew it cemented the game, as well.
“We were a step away from breaking a touchdown even to the end,” Welch said. “Even when they got the field goal to go up 20-7, I thought we would win it 21-20. But the key is they controlled the clock and I said whoever controlled the clock would win the ballgame.”
And the Pirates knew that would be crucial, too, as well as forcing Cove to pass. Initially the Bulldawgs tried what they had done well all year - run right up the gut of the defense. But with Wylie nose guard and two-time district defensive MVP Nikita Whitlock making that difficult, the Bulldawgs quickly began to pass and then work the edges, but they still found little success.
“We wanted to make them throw,” Whitlock said. “No offense against their quarterback, but we knew their quarterback wasn’t the best we’ve seen and we knew we could stop them throwing the ball. They do the same thing teams we’ve seen all year have done. They were a solid team, but we knew if we stopped their run we had them."
Brock, who is committed to Texas Christian, put the loss on himself and the defense and not the Cove offense.
“We put up seven points; we should have won the game,” he said. “It’s on the defense that we are not going to the state championship game next week, and I’m the leader of the defense. It was a great game and everyone fought to the end. They have a great team; we just didn’t do what we had to do to win the game.”
mhood@temple-telegram.com
