Cocoa Defense holds Eagles
to 3 second half point
DeSoto –They came into the contest wondering if they could measure up with the big boys.
A star will find a way to shine and that’s what the Tigers RB Chevelle Buie did tonight. The speedy Rutgers commit, a total athletic machine is as good as advertized. He used his gifted ability to burn the Eagles defense for three game breaking second half touchdowns.
While Abilene is fresh off their first state title in 53 years Cocoa has won two straight state titles the last two seasons, in class 2A last season and in 3A the season before.
After constantly being shut down in the first half, the Tigers had to venture away from their bread and butter wing-T offense for something more balanced.
Florida’s Class 2A power Cocoa Tigers (2-0) surprised The Abilene Eagles 24-13 Friday night at Eagle Stadium in the first ever Florida vs. Texas High School Football Showcase.
The Eagles drove 67 yards in 6 plays to get on the board with a Christian Valero 31 yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead with 9:17 to go in the first quarter.
The Eagles were able to stuff Cocoa’s wing T offense for much of the first half.
A 49 yard Sims pass to Darius Joseph gave the Eagles a 10 point lead with 10:27 to go in the second quarter.
“There unbelievably well coached, we didn’t get a first down until 2:00 to go in the first half; there just unbelievably coached we’re lucky to win. At the half I told my kids we’ve been a fight before, 26 in a roll, we’ve been behind before. I just said hang in there. Chevelle got bottled little bit at the beginning but I knew we just had to put the ball in his hands and let him do what he does,” said Cocoa’s Coach John Wilkinson.
Cocoa grabbed some momentum going into intermission picking up their first points of the game with 43 yard field goal from Cody Bell with 3 seconds left. They avoided disaster before the field goal; stopping Abilene when Ronnell Sims pass was incomplete intended for Jaret Smith at the 37 yard line on 4th and short.
Abilene was marred by uncommon mistakes and penalties throughout the game.
Cocoa turned up the defensive pressure in the third quarter. Apparently the quickness and speed of the under sized Tigers defense was a major problem for Abilene to overcome. In most cases they were beating the Eagle blockers to the point of attack.
“We just faced adversity something we’re not use to facing. Really we jump on teams early or jump on them late and stay on them but tonight we saw something new and it was a little more than we could handle tonight but we’ll go back to work tomorrow and fix it. We had faith in our offense but tonight it wasn’t happening as well as we were supposed to. It wasn’t as them, we just beat ourselves tonight,” said Darrius Joseph Abilene’s Receiver.
A 78 yard strike from Cody White to Buie tied the game at 10. Buie simply outran Abilene’s Cornerback for the catch and run.
“We knew the Safeties were biting all game so we’ve been working at practice all week. I stayed inside the hash, Trey threw a good pass, I trust him and he trust me and I ran up under the ball and caught it. We knew could pass in the beginning but we wanted to use the run to set up the pass,” said Cocoa’s RB Chevelle Buie.
Early in the 4th quarter the Tigers came up short with a chance to take the lead on a fail 32 yard field goal.
Right after Abilene drove 75 yards to regain the lead 13-10 with a 32 yard field goal.
Then the Tigers responded when Buie took a pitch 75 yards moving right from the backfield and turned on the jets out running the entire Abilene defense to the end zone in shocking fashion to grab a commanding 17-13 lead for keeps.
“It was looking bad in the beginning but we fought back. This is not our first time being down, we’ve fought through adversity. We are in it to win it, we are all together, we are all brothers over here and we fought back and fought back and we came out with a victory,” said Cocoa’s RB Chevelle Buie.
Buie did it again putting the game away with a 35 yard touchdown run with 4:33 to go wiping out any thoughts of a comeback.