Cobras win football season opener

By Tim Bryson Co-coach, WCCHS Cobras football team

The Willow Creek Composite High School Cobras won their football season opener last Friday, Sept. 5, with a 28-21 win over the Brooks Buffalos.
As is often the case with the first game of the year, the game started slowly for both teams, as they were trying to work out the glitches that can only be exposed by live competition. However, midway through the first quarter, the Cobras started rolling.
The Cobras opened the scoring on a 57-yard touchdown run by Logan Hurlburt. On their next drive, they went 82 yards on 11 plays and scored on a well-executed screen pass to Kael Smith, who was lined up in the backfield. It was Smith’s first ever touchdown, and he and his teammates thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the moment.
On the Cobras second drive of the second half, they struck again, as Hurlburt scored from 29 yards out, stretching the lead to 21-0.
Brooks wasn’t done, however, as they scored on successive one play drives with passes covering 45 and 86 yards. All of a sudden, it was a ball game.
However, early in the fourth quarter, safety Keegan Scott jumped in front of a deep pass and returned it to the Brooks’ 16-yard line, setting up Hurlburt’s third touchdown of the game from a yard out. It looked like the home team was home and cooled out, but a miscue on a punt attempt led to a blocked punt being returned for a touchdown by Brooks with just under two minutes to play. However, the Cobras were able to secure the on-side kick and drive downfield before going into “victory” formation in the last 30 seconds.
Despite the big play scores by Brooks, the defence did a lot of good things. They held Brooks to 39 yards on eight carries. While they yielded 246 yards on 11 of 27 passing, the two long touchdowns accounted for 131 yards of that. Mika Hadu-Tutu had an excellent game in his first start at defensive halfback, making six tackles (including one for lost yardage, the old “TFL”), forcing a fumble, and intercepting a Brooks pass just inside our goal line late in the fourth quarter. Despite getting beat deep once, Micah Rice was solid in his coverage the rest of the night, playing some excellent positional football and defending seven passes. Grayson McClung and Karter Friesen had solid debuts, making numerous tackles and making their presence felt with their physical play. Logan Hurlburt led the defense with seven tackles, including three for lost yards, a forced fumble and a quarterback pressure.
Hurlburt also led the Cobra ground game with 213 yards on just 11 carries and three touchdowns. Easton Wright chipped in with 32 yards of tough running, including a 17-yard run that put the game away late in the fourth quarter. That run was highlighted by Kael Smith throwing two massive blocks, which saw him launch unfortunate Brooks defenders into the air. They were textbook examples of finishing the block and playing all out to the whistle.
Syler Sabey led the receiving core with six receptions for 34 yards, while Easton Wright chipped in with four catches for 39 yards. Quarterback Briggs Baker completed 12 of 22 passes for 101 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Baker also handled all the kicking duties.
The Cobras next action is this Friday in Olds. Their next home action is Friday, Sept. 26 against Crescent Heights of Medicine Hat.