While Cooper was able to pounce on turnovers throughout the postseason, they were unable to do so on Saturday night in the KHSAA Class 5A state championship game.
The Jaguars were able to force four turnovers on Bowling Green, problem is they turned that into zero points in a 28-14 loss to the Purples.
“Some of the things we weren’t able to convert on tonight are plays that we converted all year,” Jaguars coach Randy Borchers said. “Just one those games we just didn’t make plays when we needed to.”
Meanwhile in the rain-soaked battle at Kroger Field in Lexington, Bowling Green turned three Cooper turnovers into 14 points, which happened to be the difference in the game.
Two muffed punts in the first half by Jaidan Combs set Bowling Green up in Jaguars territory on both occasions, the first time resulting in a Purples touchdown when Duece Bailey avoided a sack from the state sack leader Austin Alexander and fired a 31-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Klein.
“Just saw him in the corner of my eye, tried to get away from him,” Bailey said. “That’s a pretty big guy. He’s got offers from everywhere. Just tried to get away from him, get outside the pocket and make a play.”
The play was on a fourth and six, the Jaguars nearly escaping the tough situation. Bowling Green made it 14-0 when Bailey hit Trevy Barber for a 43-yard strike.
The Jaguars responded with an eight play, 80 yard drive, converting on a third and fourth and long, the fourth down play a 24-yard touchdown pass from Cam O’Hara to Isaiah Johnson to make it 14-7 with 3:46 left in the first.
Lucas Hughes and Jack Lonaker then intercepted passes for the first two of the four Jaguar turnovers they forced on the night. With the inability to convert those into points, Bowling Green made sure they did on Combs’ second muffed punt of the half, collecting the ball at the Jaguar 19.
Four plays later, Bailey hit Jaxen Smith for a 8-yard touchdown to make it 21-7 with 4:12 left before the half, which happened to be the score at halftime.
“Two costly turnovers that took the momentum of the game from us,” Borchers said. “We just had to play from behind and just couldn’t get over the hump when we had some opportunities.”
Ryker Campbell gave Cooper a spark out of the break with an interception on the Purples first possession out of halftime, but once again it resulted in zero points.
Bowling Green eventually made it a three possession game on a Smith one-yard run, making it 28-7 with 3:35 left in the third.
O’Hara’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Alexander on fourth down in the opening stages of the fourth got it back to a two-score game.
The game started to mount more interest when Lonaker forced a fumble, Campbell recovering it on the Purples 33-yard line with 11:24 to play. But the story of the night once again was the inability to convert it into points, the drive stalling out at the Bowling Green 16.
The Jaguars defense forced a couple more three and outs, but they were unable to capitalize from there. The Jaguars ran 20 plays in the fourth and it resulted in six net yards.
In their second trip to the state title game in program history, they come up short once again to Bowling Green like they did in 2012.
They’ll miss a couple key seniors like Lonaker, Hughes, Mason Baesel and Carson Taylor, but the majority of the nucleus that got Cooper here will be back next year.
“It’s gonna be a fire that we’ve never had to experience before,” Alexander said. “We’ve never been so close to something and falling short will create that fire. It will be something similar to Scott County, they knocked us out last year and we had that extra energy going into the second round, extra fire going into that. We’ll look to bounce back next year.”
Lonaker’s loss will have the biggest impact, the team’s leading tackler the past three seasons and finished with over 400 for his career.
“After my sophomore year I thought I’d never be closer with a team. This year proved that wrong with the camaraderie that we had and respect for each other,” Lonaker said.
The Jaguars season ends at 12-3.
Cooper’s inability to run the ball on the evening also hurt, often putting O’Hara in tough situations where he had to scramble for his life.
“They did some stuff to us tonight, showed some different looks. Give them credit, they decided tonight to bring a lot of pressure, especially on third down and we just didn’t capitalize,” Borchers said.
The Jaguars finished with negative-27 rushing yards, O’Hara sacked six times for a loss of 72 yards. O’Hara finished with 220 yards passing and two touchdowns. Alexander was his leading receiver with eight catches for 93 yards and the score. Johnson had five catches for 68 yards and a score.
Bailey threw for 199 yards and three touchdowns, also using his elusiveness to rush for 70 yards on seven carries. He often extended plays by getting out of the pocket and either finding a receiver downfield and picking up a big chunk of rushing yards. His top target was Barber, who finished with nine receptions for 114 yards.
It’s the Purples eighth state title in program history, seven of them coming since 2011.
The Purples avenged a state championship loss last season to Frederick Douglass, the Jaguars hopeful to do the same thing next year. With what’s coming back, they have to be optimistic about those chances.
PURPLES 28, JAGUARS 14
COOPER — 7-0-0-7 — 14
BOWLING GREEN — 14-7-7-0 — 28
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
(BG) Bailey 31-yard pass to Klein (9:14) Widener kick
(BG) Bailey 43-yard pass to Barber (5:55) Widener kick
(C) O’Hara 24-yard pass to Johnson (3:46) Taylor kick
2nd Quarter
(BG) Bailey 8-yard pass to Smith (4:12) Widener kick
3rd Quarter
(BG) Smith 1-yard run (3:35) Widener kick
4th Quarter
(C) O’Hara 11-yard pass to Alexander (11:45) Taylor kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Cooper 220 (O’Hara 22/47), Bowling Green 199 (Bailey 16/28)
Rushing Yards: Cooper minus-27 (Maher 10-23, Combs 1-3, Campbell 1-(-1), O’Hara 11-(-52), Bowling Green 112 (Bailey 7-70, Smith 9-19, Huddleston 11-18, Graham 2-5)
Receiving: Cooper (Alexander 8-93, Johnson 5-68, Combs 3-34, Ewell 3-21), Bowling Green (Barber 9-114, Klein 2-43, Smith 2-9, Graham 1-14)
First Downs: Cooper 17, Bowling Green 14
Turnovers: Cooper 3, Bowling Green 4
Penalties: Cooper 3-43, Bowling Green 9-104
Records: Cooper 12-3, Bowling Green 12-3
