Nightmare at Norris Field

Jeff Cali Sports Editor

Ada October 14, 2008 05:37 pm

— With 27 seconds left in the first half of its District 5A-4 contest with Tulsa Central Friday night at Norris Field, the Ada High football team appeared to have put a nightmarish week behind them.
The Cougars had rolled to a 21-0 lead and appeared on the verge of a convincing Week 6 victory.
But Tulsa Central quarterback Demarco Cobbs did his best Freddy Krueger impersonation by slashing through the Cougar defense in the second half and guiding the Braves to an improbable 40-28 come-from-behind win that had to be chilling to Ada coaches, players and fans.
Tulsa Central improved to 4-2 overall while back-to-back losses now have the Cougars standing at 3-3. Ada and Tulsa Central are now both 1-2 tied for fifth place in the district standings.
The Cougars came out on the short end of a lopsided 64-21 loss to Coweta in Week 5 and had to cope with several teammate being injured in a bad automobile accident last Saturday.
And now this.
“We were down, no doubt,” Ada head coach Matt Weber said of his team’s psyche following Friday night’s loss. “Probably for more reasons than just losing the football game.”
Tulsa Central ended up scoring four unanswered touchdowns and outscored Ada 18-7 in the fourth quarter.
“We just let one get away from us. It’s certainly one we had a chance to win,” Weber said. “You have to give (Tulsa Central) credit. They never got their heads down, even when they got down 21 to nothing. They showed a lot of maturity to come back in the second half like they did.”
After Ada had taken advantage of a Colton Richardson interception and turned it into a 2-yard TD run by fullback Justin Todd, the Cougars led 21-0 with 27 ticks left on the second-quarter clock. But the game seemed to turn on a couple of unorthodox plays just before halftime.
When the Cougars tried a squib kick after the Todd TD, he ball hit Tulsa Central’s Jared Farrell — who was one of the Braves front line players — squarely in the chest. Farrell was somehow able to hang on to the ball, giving Tulsa Central the ball right on the midfield stripe.
After an incomplete pass, Cobbs avoided a Cougar rush and heaved a pass down the right sideline. Receiver Victor Bell was camped under it at the 2, with no Ada defenders within 20 yards, and he easily walked into the end zone with the 50-yard TD reception. Cobbs then scored on a two-point play — the Braves never attempted a PAT kick — and all of the sudden, Ada’s lead had been trimmed to 21-8 at the break.
“That was just unfortunate,” Weber said of the unintentional onside kick. “We were just trying to squib it. Then we had a defensive breakdown. Kids are kids and we just got mixed up somehow, and didn’t get back (defensively). That for sure gave them momentum going in the half.”
After Ada turned the ball over on downs at the Tulsa Central 35 to open the third quarter, the Braves needed just seven plays to cover 65 yards and get within 21-16. The big play of the drive was tailback Alive Everett’s 24-yard run and Cobbs finished it with a quarterback sneak from the 1.
At the end of the third quarter, Cobbs scored on a highlight reel 80-yard TD run that started with him running to his left, cutting back to his right and using a nice juke to get free and outraced Ada defenders to paydirt. That long score gave the Braves their first lead of the game at 22-21.
Ada fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Tulsa Central cashed in via a 26-yard TD pass from Cobbs to Bell. After another failed two-point try, the Braves led 28-21 with 11:50 to play.
Qumain Black, Ada’s talented quarterback, then took matters into his own hands. His first four carries of the next Cougar drive went for a combined 50 yard and got Ada to the Tulsa Central Red Zone. After a personal foul facemask penalty on the Braves, Keeslar Stover ran 10 yards to the 1 before Black punched it in and Ryan Smith’s fourth PAT in four tries knotted the score at 28-28 with 9:11 left. The game clock might have told the tale however, as Ada clearly needed to call for help to aid in stopping the Braves.
Cobbs’ biggest play of the game came with the Braves staring at a fourth-and-five from the Ada 28. With no kicking game, Tulsa Central head coach Corey T. Russell was forced to go for it. Cobbs came through in the clutch, knifing his way through the Ada defense, brushing off a couple of would-be tacklers and romping into the end zone for the tie-breaking TD.
With just over four minutes left, Ada couldn’t convert its own fourth-down play as Black just overthrew receiver Eddie Brown, who had gotten open down the left sideline.
Two penalties and a big tackle for a five-yard loss by new defensive starter Randy Armstrong had put the Braves in a second-and-25 hole on their next drive. But an 11-yard run by Everett and a 27-yard scramble Cobbs resulted in a first down and then the Tulsa Central QB ended his big night with a game-clinching 29-yard TD run with 1:11 showing on the clock.
After finishing the first half with just two rushing attempts for minus one yard, Cobbs gained 151 yards and scored four times over the final two quarters. He also finished with 121 passing yards.
“He’s a really good athlete. He made us look silly a couple of times out there. We also had him dead to rights a couple of times, and didn’t wrap him up. But he’s a heckuva player,” Weber said.
It was all Ada for 98 percent of the first half.
The Cougars took the opening drive of the game and bullied the Braves down the field, using 15 rushing plays to cover 68 yards and chew up 8:17 off the game clock. Black capped the drive with a 7-yard TD run to put Ada on the scoreboard first at 7-0.
“That was our game plan going in. We were going to try to stay between the tackles and move it on the ground. We were going to keep pounding them,” Weber said. “I thought our offensive line did a good job.”
On Tulsa Central’s second offensive play, Stover picked Cobbs off. Black then engineered a 71-yard scoring drive — kept alive by a roughing-the-kicker penalty on an Ada punt attempt. Black connected with Brown on a 24-yard scoring strike to put the hosts on top 14-0 early in the second quarter.
Even in defeat, Black had another strong game for Ada, throwing for 110 yards and rushing for 165.
Everett also broke the 100-yard rushing mark for the Braves, finishing with 103 on 18 carries.
Ada plays at winless Stillwell (0-6, 0-3) in a Thursday night fall break contest. The Cougars then travel to No. 4 Tulsa East Central before finishing the regular season with home games against Tahlequah (2-4, 2-1) and archrival McAlester (2-4, 2-1).
“We’re still trying to make the playoffs. I still think if we win three of our last four, we’ll get in,” Weber said. “We put ourselves in a tougher spot, but we’re not about to give up. We just need to figure out a way to go win three more.”

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