Cook, Brooks in battle of top 10 teams

Homepage

Related Photos

Cook.jpg

October 25, 2012

Cook, Brooks in battle of top 10 teams

Becky Taylor CNHI The Tifton Gazette Thu Oct 25, 2012, 07:52 PM EDT

TIFTON — The Cook Hornets travel to Quitman tonight to face the Brooks County Trojans in the biggest game of the week in the Tiftarea.

“This game is huge,” said Ken Cofer, head coach of Cook.

“It’s definitely a tough game for us.”

And it shapes up to be a tremendous battle.

Cook is 6-1, Brooks 8-0. The Hornets are No. 6 in the most recent Associated Press poll. The Trojans sign in at No. 2, trailing only Calhoun for top honors.

The Trojans have had a handful of close games. They defeated Monroe of Albany by three points, Valdosta by four and most recently, slid by Fitzgerald by three, 27-24.

The game against the Purple Hurricanes saw Brooks battle from back from a 24-14 deficit entirely through returns. Deric Herring first returned a kickoff for a score, then added the game winning punt return score with only 18 seconds remaining.

Cofer attributes the Fitzgerald game, as well as all other close ones, to the Trojans’ skill.

“Luck happens once, maybe twice,” he said.

While Brooks has had a series of close games, nearly all of Cook’s have been by wide margins. Their only wins decided by less than 20 points were 14-point wins over Thomasville and Jefferson County. The Thomasville game was followed by their only loss of the season, a 21-15 decision to Fitzgerald.

While the scores have had the Hornets winning by wide margins, Cook will not be at full strength tonight.

“We’re definitely not going in 100%,” Cofer said.

He said that one skill player would be out and several of his offensive linemen were banged up. He said he’s not worried, though, about this affecting his squad’s spirit.

“They perform until the end,” he said.

The Hornets had the honor of being the Tiftarea’s most unusual game last week. While all other area schools were paired with region opponents, Cook hosted the Jefferson County Warriors from Louisville, a team not just a non-region opponent, but a team located near Augusta.

Cofer said his schedule had been completed originally with a game against the Atkinson County Rebels.

Atkinson, jumping up from Class A, was slated to be in Region 1-AA, but petitioned the Georgia High School Association to be switched to Region 2-AA. The GHSA agreed, leaving Cook a game short and their coach a hole to fill.

This was solved with the addition of Jefferson County, a school coached by J.B. Arnold, a friend and former high school classmate of Cofer’s.

“It was a good chance to play a quality opponent,” Cofer said.

Cook, resting several player in anticipation for the Brooks contest, found the Warriors to be a chore. The Hornets spent most of the half leading, 7-0, before the Warriors scored late in the second quarter.

“They grabbed all the momentum,” said Cofer.

The momentum would not stick, though, as Cook scored two touchdowns over the next two quarters to pull away, resulting in the final score of 20-6, and dropping Jefferson County’s season record to 5-3.

“J.B. has a young team,” Cofer said. “They’ll be even better next year.”

After battling Brooks, next week the Hornets will host their traditional rivals the Berrien Rebels in the annual border war. Berrien will have a head start in facing Hornets; they play the Pelham Hornets tonight.

Text Only

Homepage

Search Results

Related Photos

Cook, Brooks in battle of top 10 teams

Site Map

Contact Us