The Woodlands Christian Academy take down John Cooper in season opener

A football rivalry consists of two teams playing against each other for a substantial amount of time. What we had last night at John Cooper's Pugh Field was the makings of a rivalry as crosstown foe The Woodlands Christian Academy (1-0) Warriors paid the upstart John Cooper School Dragons (0-1) a visit for year two of what will most likely be an annual contest. Although John Cooper plays football independently without a conference at this time and TWCA is a member of TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools), they are private schools less than two miles from each other.



John Cooper is only in their third year of football existence under Coach Brent Landrum. The Woodlands Christian Academy under Coach Nate Sanford have been around for a while and are a well oiled machine and considerably bigger than the Dragons which reflected in the final score of 50-20.



However, if you weren't at the game the score would not reflect how good the pesky Dragons played offering up quite a bit of resistance. Pre-game rumblings from fans on both sides of the football field were similar in that people were hoping a competitive football game was about to be played.



The fans got their wish, and after a Jack Bento to Dirk Sanford 30 yard Warrior scoring aerial (extra point failed), John Cooper took the kickoff and marched right down the field and had a first and goal on TWCA's one yard line. The Warrior defense came up huge not allowing any penetration on the first three plays. Then on 4th and goal, Outside linebacker Andrew Van Horn broke through the Dragon line and made a big tackle for a four yard loss. Shortly thereafter the first quarter concluded with the Warriors up by the slim margin of 6-0.



TWCA's experience started to kick in early in the second quarter as a Raul Giorgi two yard TD run (pass failed) and a Bento to Matt Muschenheim scoring strike combined with a Sebastien Martinez successful extra point made the score 19-0 Warriors with less than five minutes remaining in the half.



There was no quit in the Dragons as they responded with a Michael Gerber laser beam to talented wide-out Ray Walker for a 23 yard touchdown pass. John Cooper was on the board and hanging tough.



The Dragon sideline jubilee was silenced within seconds as on the ensuing kickoff Luke Hudson sprinted 83 yards for a touchdown to widen the Warrior lead to 26-6 at halftime.



John Cooper kicked off to start the second half and must have thought it was deja-vu all over again as Hudson took the kickoff 82 yards this time, taking some of the fire out of the Dragons.



A Fabian Reyes touchdown on a one yard pass from Bento and a Martinez 29 yard field goal concluded the scoring in the third quarter making it 43-6.



John Cooper dug deep down and were able to win the fourth quarter on the strength of two Gerber scoring TD passes to Nicholas Beaty and Walker. TWCA had scored early in the fourth quarter when Brendan Seeman found his way to the end zone on a 17 yard scamper.



TWCA's Georgi took rushing honors on the night with 43 yards. Hudson had 42. Bento passed for 169 yards as Sanford caught four balls for 117 yards.



For John Cooper, Michael Gerber threw for a whopping 290 yards with the biggest beneficiary being Walker who caught eight balls for 149 yards. Sam Hodges had 10 catches for 67 yards.



TWCA's Coach Sanford elaborated about the game below.



"We (coaches) sat around before the game and talked about what we'd like to say after the game. We all said we have to play snap to whistle the entire game long. Without seeing the film, we think we did a good job of that. What I really like about this team is the culture is headed in the right direction. The kids love each other and they play for each other. Tell you what...Coach Landrum has John Cooper moving in the right direction. He is a class act and his kids play with class. Also, they are much more physical this year than they were last year."



TWCA next plays at home versus Westbury Christian on Friday. John Cooper travels to Dallas to take on Greenville on Friday.