By Jason Chlapek
Cove Leader-Press
In a game where starting quarterback Craig Davis III left with an injury in the second quarter, the Copperas Cove football team still had a chance to win at the end Friday night.
But in the end, it wasn’t meant to be. Cedar Ridge quarterback Dylan Snoga hit Zaccai Williams for a 47-yard touchdown pass with 1:23 left in the contest and Trent Bell intercepted a Brenham Taylor pass with 37 seconds remaining to clinch a 42-35 victory for the Raiders at Bulldawg Stadium.
Snoga passed for 262 yards and three touchdowns for Cedar Ridge. He had scoring tosses of 65 and 47 yards to Williams, and 70 yards to Carter Copeland.
Cove (1-1) was led by KJ Zeigler, who ran for 169 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries.
Davis passed for 121 yards and two scores with Ashton Adams catching two passes for 63 yards and a touchdown, and Victor Tepezano grabbing six passes for 62 yards and a score.
Cove dominated the first quarter.
Despite being stuffed at the Cedar Ridge 2-yard line on the opening drive, the Bulldawgs forced the Raiders to punt on both of their first-quarter drives and cashed in on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Davis to Tepezano at the 2:21 mark of the opening frame.
The first score took place the play after a 32-yard field goal by Braiden Meloon was taken off of the scoreboard because of the roughing the kicker penalty against the Raiders.
The key play of the drive was Davis connecting with Jaylen Boyd for 11 yards on fourth-and-8 from the Cedar Ridge 35.
Cove struck again at the 10:57 mark of the second quarter. Davis hit Adams for a 52-yard score to increase the Bulldawgs’ lead to 14-0.
The Raiders got on the board on a 2-yard score from Devin Patterson with 6:24 left in the second quarter. Patterson had five carries for 21 yards on the drive, while Tyler Mutz had a 43-yard run.
Following a Cove punt, Cedar Ridge struck again. This time, Snoga hit Williams for a 65-yard score to tie the game at 14 with 2:24 left before halftime.
The Raiders drove to the Cove 21 and attempted a 38-yard field goal on the final play before halftime. But the Bulldawgs blocked the kick to leave the score tied 14-all at the break.
Cedar Ridge took over in the second half. On the third play after the break, Snoga hit Harrison for a touchdown to give the Raiders a 21-14 lead at the 11:09 mark of the third.
Cove trimmed its deficit to 21-17 on a 38-yard field goal from Meloon with 5:25 remaining in the third, but Cedar Ridge answered with a 1-yard touchdown run from Patterson to increase his team’s lead to 28-17 with 3:05 left in the frame.
Taylor hit Jaylen Boyd for completions of 26 and 10 yards before Brenton Boyd scored on a 20-yard run and Taylor and Jaylen Boyd connected on the two-point conversion to pull within three, 28-25, with 1:16 remaining in the third.
On the next play, Cedar Ridge resorted to trickery. Snoga threw a lateral to Patterson, who fired a pass downfield to a wide-open Carter Copeland for a 70-yard touchdown that increased the Raiders’ lead to 35-25 with 1:07 remaining in the third.
A 58-yard kickoff return by Brenton Boyd set Cove up at the Cedar Ridge 37. Following a 20-yard completion from Taylor to Treyton Callum, Zeigler burst up the middle for a 15-yard score to cut the Cedar Ridge lead to 35-32 as the third quarter expired.
The Bulldawgs stepped up defensively and eventually drove into the red zone where Meloon hit the game-tying field goal from 36 yards out to knot the game at 35 with 2:54 left in the contest. But Snoga needed just five plays to drive the Raiders 75 yards and capped the drive with a 47-yard scoring strike to Williams to give his team the lead for good, 42-35, with 1:23 remaining.
Taylor hit Tepezano for 11 yards to the Cove 47 on the first play of the next drive, but two plays later, his desperation pass was intercepted by Bell with 37 seconds left. Cedar Ridge ran out the clock from there.
The Bulldawgs will look to bounce back next week when they host Hutto (1-1). Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Bulldawg Stadium.
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