Only the day was changed as Cooper-Highlands district battle goes down to the wire again

By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter

You expected something different? From a Cooper-Highlands Class 5A district showdown?

Sure, lots about this game had changed going from Friday Night Lights to Saturday Morning Lights. Maybe not as much rain and wind as Friday night when this one was rescheduled thanks to the Hurricane Helene weather. But it was still ugly, drizzly, dreary and dark as heck here at historic David Cecil Memorial Stadium in Ft. Thomas when they kicked off at 10 a.m.

And with a crowd maybe a quarter the size you’d have expected for a good-weather Friday night game.

Saturday mornings are for golf tournaments, Knothole baseball games and the semifinals of basketball’s Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena. But that was the deal for this one. The Cooper kids had to be up and ready to go at 7:15 for the bus ride from Union.

Other than that, Cooper (5-0) was still the unbeaten top-ranked 5A team in Kentucky. Highlands (4-1), with that lone loss to Class 6A Ryle, was still the biggest threat to the Jaguars. At the game’s start – and on its very last play.

As anyone who has paid attention to the way these two teams go at it in recent years knew would be the case. And in a flip-the-script from a year ago, it was a visiting Cooper team that held on for that final play. As Highlands did a year ago in the regular season at Cooper.

But enough about last season. In this one, it came down to a fourth-and-10 for the Bluebirds on a Rio Litmer pass from the Cooper 37 that the Jags’ Austin Perriman – or maybe it was Ryker Campbell, the two were in on most defensive plays – broke up with four seconds left to end this one.

Cooper 24, Highlands 21.

Just the way it had to be. Not that this game gives the winner a playoff pass. Highlands won the regular season game last year only to lose to Cooper in the state semifinals. So don’t be surprised if we see this matchup again when it really matters.

“We won’t be surprised to see them again,” Cooper wide receiver Jaiden Combs said, after an eye-popping game-opening 80-yard touchdown kickoff return that had Cooper ahead, 7-0, just 13 seconds into the game. “But we’re thinking about Conner (the next game) and the rest of our schedule,” Combs said, sounding every bit like the senior he is.

As for that opening play, it was his chance “to wake everybody up,” Combs said. Except maybe for one side of that Highlands kickoff team. “We knew we could go left,” Combs said – and did, putting Highlands into a hole the Bluebirds had to dig themselves out of all morning.

Which they almost did. Almost.

But in a game this close, Cooper got the deciders that mattered, that first score from Combs and the last one – a 22-yard game-winning field goal from junior Eyler Tibbs, his first. That was after Highlands missed a 27-yarder to open the fourth quarter that would have cut the lead to 21-17.

Each team would score once more with Tibbs’ field goal the deciding difference in a game of eye-popping individual plays.

Sophomore Gabe Williams gave the Birds one final highlight reel TD on an 11-yard swing pass from Litmer that saw him run through one defender and then another down the sideline on his way to the end zone.

He threw for 231 yards on 16 of 23 passing, ran for another 47 on 14 carries and produced all three Highlands’ TD with his arm as Highlands racked up 391 yards of offense. The first of those TD came to senior wide receiver Adam Surrey from the 45 after a move through the middle of the Cooper secondary that left him wide open.

The second came on a lob from the 6-yard line to multi-position sophomore Tayden Lorenzen who made an almost impossible two hand grab over a defender standing on his shoes.

But it was Cooper junior quarterback Cam O’Hara who piled up the yards with 291 of the Jags’ 476 yards of total offense through the air on 13 of 32 passing and one TD with big-yard plays to 6-foot-3 senior Isaiah Johnson who pulled in six for 129 yards.

On the ground, Cooper’s Keegan Maher totaled 116 yards on 15 carries with a TD. For Highlands, Jack White ran for 74 on 16.

But Keegan’s long run may have made for the day’s most spectacular play. With 32 seconds left in the first half after Highlands had cut the Cooper lead to 21-14, the Jags lined up on their own 26. And gave the ball to Maher who proceeded to beat the entire Highlands’ defense in a footrace down the right side of the field. For 73 yards, they chased him from behind. And just as Maher approached the end zone, out of nowhere came a flying, leaping Surrey who with one punch knocked the ball loose right before the goal line as it rolled into the end zone for a touchback as Highlands defenders swarmed it.

What might have been a 28-14 halftime edge was 21-14 with the momentum all Highlands’ way. And a time to do some serious coaching for Cooper’s Randy Borchers & Co. “We were trying to,” he said of the halftime regrouping. “They (Highlands) made some good adjustments.”

And despite all its playmakers, Cooper would have to win this one on defense. Especially against the pound-and-ground Highlands run game behind the Birds’ massive offensive line. “We really made an emphasis on that,” Borchers said.

But Cooper finally won this one on Tibbs’ first field goal after taking a timeout that didn’t “ice” him before the kick but calmed him down. “Absolutely,” Borchers said. “We just told him to go out there and kick it. Give the kid credit. He did it. Anything inside the 10, we were kicking it.”

Then all they had to do was hold on the final 4:49. Which the Jags did. Barely.

SCORING SUMMARY
COOPER 7 14 0 3—24
HIGHLANDS 0 14 0 7—21
Cooper: Combs 90 kickoff return (PAT Tibbs kick good)
Cooper: Alexander 71 pass from O’Hara (PAT Tibbs kick good)
Highlands: Surrey 45 pass from Litmer (PAT Nickelman kick good)
Cooper: Maher 1 run (PAT Tibbs kick good)
Highlands: Lorenzen 6 pass from Litmer (PAT Nickelman kick good)
Cooper: Tibbs 22 field goal
Highlands: Williams 11 pass from Litmer (PAT Nickelman kick good)

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com . Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.

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