COPPERAS COVE

SA Standard Times — Opening the season against a team ranked No. 1 in the state, the Central High School football team wanted to play the kind of game that would shock the West Texas football world. It was shocking, all right — for all the wrong reasons. Against a Class 4A team they had lost to by only seven points last season, the Bobcats looked like a different squad as Copperas Cove dominated en route to a 33-0 victory. In a game that was delayed 93 minutes by lightning, the Bobcats never did get started. It was the most lopsided loss for a Central team since a 48-7 loss to Abilene in the 2005 season opener.

The main highlight of the night for Central probably came on the game's first play, when the Bobcats tried and recovered an onside kick. Aided by that recovery, Central eventually got as close as the Copperas Cove 24-yard line before the drive stalled. Camden Steele's 41-yard field goal try hit the right upright and bounced away. Central never got close to scoring again in a night that saw the Bobcats gain only 94 yards of offense. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, had no such trouble getting points on the board. They kicked off their scoring with 5:16 left in the first quarter on a 50-yard run by Troy Vital as he went untouched up the middle. Later in the quarter, a Bobcats wide receiver was stripped of the ball and that turnover eventually led to another Bulldogs touchdown, this one a two-yard scamper by quarterback Robert Griffin. Central wasn't immune to woes on special teams either. Up 12-0, the Bulldogs' Josh Boyce returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter. With less than a minute before halftime, Copperas Cove made its lead 27-0 on a 48-yard touchdown pass from Griffin to Tommy McLeain, then Griffin connected with Vital on the ensuing two-point conversion.

Central had only 61 yards of total offense at the half, while the Bulldogs had accumulated 217. The second half proved to be more of the same as Central struggled to move the ball and Copperas Cove added one more insurance touchdown, a fourth-quarter 10-yard Vital run.