Cowboys lose to 2A Coal Ridge Titans

MEEKER I The Meeker Cowboys dropped a road game last Friday night to the Coal Ridge Titans, 20-39. The Cowboys played well at times, on both sides of the ball, but fumbles and special team play sealed their fate. The ‘Boys have an open date this week and it comes at a good time, as the injury bug that has bitten the Black and Gold seems to be healing and most of the players will be back in time for the conference race. Coal Ridge High School is the biggest school the Cowboys will face this season, with an enrollment of around 500 students.
There were some outstanding performances for the Cowboys on both offense and defense. The Meeker offensive unit gained 14 first downs with Coal Ridge adding 14 of their own. The rushing totals had the Titans gaining 206 yards on 53 carries versus the ‘Boys 206 on 43 attempts. In the passing phase of the game, Meeker threw the ball 13 times, completed five for 122 yards and the opponent hit five of 12 for 120 yards. Dylan Mobley was four for 12 and 57 yards and Jake Phelan was one for two and 65 yards. Each side threw two interceptions with the Cowboys fumbling five times and their opponent giving away two.
Coal Ridge had the football for 65 total plays compared to Meeker’s 56. Meeker had 329 total yards with the home team gaining a total of 326. Sometimes in defeat we lose the ability to see some of our players’ outstanding games, such as Aaron Cochran who had 14 tackles from his linebacker position. The junior leads the Black and Goal in tackles with 26 for the season. He is followed by Scott Smith with 23; Fernando Olivas 19; T.J. Shelton 19; Alex Smith 15; Jake Phelan 15; Nate Walsh 13; and J.C. Henderson, Sebastian Clarke and J.R. Crawford with 10 each. The seniors have posted 42 percent of the total Cowboy tackles, followed by the juniors with 28 percent. The freshmen have 15 percent of the total with the sophomores adding 14 percent. First time players Truman Titler and Tala Atoafa each contributed eight tackles and played well.
Meeker has 15 players who have played more than 100 plays and the Black and Gold have 34 different men taking action in their games. Clarke leads in total plays with 362, Alex Smith 331, T.J. Shelton 321, Dylan Mobley 309, Devon Pontine 298, Scott Smith 293, J.C. Henderson 290, Noah Overton 235, Joe Newman 207, Fernando Olivas 200, Aaron Cochran 193, Nate Walsh 154, Jake Phelan 151, Ricky Jeffrey 134 and Austin Brown 118. Ruben Roybal, Tristin Pelloni and Tala Atoafa have all played more than 50 plays in this young season. Seniors have played 29 percent of our plays, juniors 33 percent followed by the freshman, who have played 21 percent of the season’s total plays, with the 10th graders adding 15 percent.
T.J. Shelton led the ‘Boys in rushing Friday night, running for 126 yards on 18 carries, and he scored two touchdowns. Sebastian Clarke added 39 yards rushing to his team leading 286 yards for the season plus scoring a touchdown and running for two extra points. Clarke and Shelton lead the Cowboys in scoring with three TDs each. Dylan Mobley added 17 on six attempts, followed by Jake Phelan with 11 yards rushing on two attempts, J.C. Henderson with three for eight yards, Tala Atoafa with two for six and Jeff Wagner one for two yards. Clark and Phelan each recorded an interception during Friday night’s action. The juniors lead in rushing with 57 percent of the total, followed by the freshmen with 38 percent.
The Smith twins lead the Black and Gold in receiving with Scott Smith having caught 14 passes this fall. Alex Smith has the longest reception, catching a 65 yarder in Friday’s game from Jake Phelan. This ties the seventh longest pass in Meeker history, behind the record 78 yarder by Jack Lambert in 1977.
A special note in Friday’s game was the 98 yard drive for a touchdown. This was the first action at quarterback for Jake Phelan, and this drive topped the 96 yards by the 1986 team led by offensive linemen S. Corr, C. Lines, C. Adams, T. Bolgee and M. Jensen. The offensive line during the 2012 drive had Ricky Jeffrey, Austin Brown, Noah Overton, Joe Newman, Devon Pontine, Ruben Roybal and Nakoma Bailey blocking. This is a special action by special men who play in these tough-to-man positions.
DID YOU KNOW? Ike Harp in 1952 was responsible for 29 touchdowns during the season. This is the combined total of scoring touchdowns and/or throwing a touchdown pass. Twenty is a sound total and our hats off to Ike Harp. Jimmy Cook of GOLF FAME accounted for 24 in 1968.