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Football: Coppell cruises past Irving MacArthur in bi-district round, 31-7
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
ARLINGTON — The Round 2 showdown high school football fans have been clamoring for is on its way to happening after Coppell took down Irving MacArthur in a bi-district round game Saturday at Cowboys Stadium, 31-7.
The game was the first of four in Arlington and advances the Cowboys to the second round where they will likely face DeSoto.
The Eagles had a commanding lead over Killeen Harker Heights Saturday as Coppell’s game concluded setting up the showdown. DeSoto (10-0, 7-0 in District 7-5A) is ranked No. 2 in the state by the Associated Press, while Coppell (11-0, 5-0 in 5-5A) is ranked No. 5.
Without the services of running back Gavin McDaniel, Coppell leaned on back Charles West, who picked up 129 yards on 18 carries with two touchdowns. Luke Jenner chipped in 52 total yards, including a touchdown reception, while Cameron Smith led the Cowboy receivers with five grabs for 99 yards to go with two rushes for 33 yards.
“We missed Gavin but we wanted to hold him out and make sure he was 100 percent for next week,” said Joe McBride, Coppell head coach. “Charles has done a good job of pulling the slack. We expected a little bit more of Boris (Mulume), too, but he’ll get his carries next week. Jenner did a good job, too. It needs to be a family affair at tailback anyway. We don’t want it to be just one guy.”
Quarterback Colby Mahon wasn’t asked to throw often but was effective when he did, completing 9-of-12 passes for 132 yards and a touchdown.
“Colby did well,” McBride said. “There were a couple of (incompletions) that weren’t his fault. But he took care of the ball and was smart with it and that’s what we ask him to do. He throws completions and keeps it moving.”
Coppell had plans on putting MacArthur away early and jumped on the Cardinals from the start.
After forcing a three-and-out on the opening possession, the Cowboys drove 60 yards on nine plays to take a 7-0 advantage. Seven consecutive runs moved Coppell into MacArthur territory, the last a pickup on fourth-and-one that set up a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jenner, who was all alone in the flat out of the backfield.
The Cowboys didn’t let up after the opening score, however, attempting and successfully recovering an onside kick to take over at its own 48-yard line.
It took Coppell just five plays to double its lead, pushing the margin to 14-0 when West got outside and hurdled a defender at the goal-line for a 15-yard scoring run.
“We’ve been practicing that all year in case somebody lines up in a way we feel like they shouldn’t,” McBride said. “They didn’t the first kick and they didn’t the second one, so we came with it the second time and it worked. When we feel like we have it, we’re going to do it. You don’t want to just do it to do it.”
After MacArthur trimmed the lead in half on a drive that featured runs of 19 and 24 yards, Coppell responded with a touchdown march of its own on its final possession of the half. Again it was West finding the end zone following an untouched run, this time a 34-yard dash on fourth-and-one.
The Cowboys also blocked a Trinity field goal that could have sliced a 14-7 lead to 14-10 with 9:22 left in the second quarter.
“I think the blocked field goal was a big swing,” McBride said. “We responded with a touchdown after that and swung the momentum back our way.”
Defensively, Coppell limited MacArthur to 260 total yards.
Quarterback Tyler Petrillo paced the Cardinals’ attack with 108 rushing yards.
“They’re really good on offense with their zone-read,” McBride said. “It’s hard to fit and you have to be very disciplined. It’s like the old school veer stuff but they do it from shotgun and it’s tough. We just had to make adjustments and get through a wave of it. It was tough.”
Now Coppell can shift its focus to slowing DeSoto’s high-powered offense.
“We have to play great team defense and go to work,” McBride said. “They’re great and are one of the most talented teams in the nation. If they’re the team, we have our work cut out for ourselves.”
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