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Cougars upset Lumberton, 31-21
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| Crosby quarterback Dominic Merka has been hitting the mark for the Cougars. In the Coogs stunning upset over Lumberton, the sophomore threw for four touchdowns and had nearly 300 all purpose yards for the game. Photo by David Taylor |
By DAVID TAYLOR
There’s a lot to be said for preparation. Coaches and players at Crosby did their homework last week and it paid big dividends. The Coogs advance this week to the Area round of the state playoffs by virtue of their upset win over 20-4A District winner Lumberton, 31-21.
A good bit of the game was won in the dark rooms of the Field House on the edge of the Cougar’s Lair Stadium. For hours after the game last week, a loss to playoff bound rival C. E. King, coaches began breaking down film—play by play.
“We get here at 8 on Saturday mornings and we begin looking at film of our plays and then we start looking at the opponent’s film,” said Head Coach Kevin Flanigan.
Sometimes the coaches don’t get finished up with breaking down and reviewing the film until 8 or 9 Saturday night. By the end of the day, they’ll have film footage of most of the formations of their opponents. The athletes will view video on Saturday with the coaches for approximately two hours. On Sunday, both offense and defense break down the plays and begin to figure out how they will make a game plan. Many weekends, it’s 19-20 hours of study of their performance on the previous night and that of their opponents. By Monday morning, the athletes will have a packet to look at regarding their game plan for the next opponent.
It’s not anything new or unique to the Cougars, everyone does it. Crosby just happened to identify the flaws in their opponents on Friday night and took advantage of it. It wasn’t unexpected--the coaching staff had identified it watching game film.
“We knew that they were going to be physical with us [on defense], and we could see the mismatches were going to be outside the box,” said Flanigan. “We had some speed guys that they just didn’t have.”
The Coogs took advantage by getting the ball to Xavier Frank and Chance Casey.
“In the box, their down linemen are good. All year they have kind of relied on their defensive line as their pass coverage by putting pressure on you,” said Flanigan. The Coogs countered that by getting the ball to their skill players quickly, throwing to the outside more.
“On the first two times we threw a little bubble pass to Chance, he scored on both of them,” coach said.
In fact, all of the Cougars scores came on Dominic Merka passes. The sophomore quarterback finished the night completing 11 of 19 passes for 168 yards and four TDs. “He’s making good decisions,” said Flanigan. Merka didn’t have any interceptions on the night either and had 113 yards rushing. Flanigan wasn’t disappointed in his sophomore having 281 all-purpose yards.
The Coogs have turned their focus on Brenham. The Cubs come into the game with a similar record as the Cougars and are dangerous.
“They are big and have a lot of speed. They have some 290-pounders on the line on both sides of the ball. They have some skill players with speed and one of them is committed to TCU,” said Flanigan.
Most of their losses have come to playoff-bound opponents.
“They’re young. They have a freshman linebacker playing, but he’s 6’1” and 230 pounds,” said Flanigan. “Their biggest forte is their team speed.”
The Cougar coach said there wouldn’t be a lot of surprises. “We’ll attack them by controlling the ball, especially in the run game.”
“We’re pretty simple in the run game, but in the passing game we’re more complex. We take what the defenses give us and that can change from week to week depending on the opponent. We try not to be one dimensional during this time of the season. That’s what we work for all year.”
The game will be Friday at Galena Park ISD Stadium. Game time is 7:30 p.m. Pre-sale tickets are $3 for students, $6 for adults and all tickets at the gate are $7. Tickets are available at the athletic office.
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