It's likely that the West Essex Knights spent all week preparing to stop the run against Columbia on Saturday. Luckily for the Cougars, it was the Demetrius Cooper coming out party, as the senior quarterback completed 8-of-14 passes for two touchdowns and 190 yards, leading Columbia to a 27-9 home win.
"I feel great about the way I played. I knew I could do it, but it seemed like in previous weeks we really couldn't put it together," Cooper said. "To come against West Essex, a team of that caliber, it feels great."
The victory improved the Cougars to 7-0 and leaves the three win Belleville boys as the only team standing in the way of Columbia's first outright division championship since 1982.
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"It will mean the world to us to the coaches and to the fans to everybody in the community, this organization and this town," Cooper said of winning a conference title. "To go out, win a conference championship and to bring it home to everybody that we've been telling that we're good. We haven't proven it, but now I think it's our time."
In last season's loss to West Essex, it was the Knights who dominated the second half - Columbia repaid the favor this time around.
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On the Knights' first play of the third quarter, Cougars Darrell Jones and Mike Larson drilled Stephen O'Neill at the line of scrimmage, forcing a fumble which was recovered by Ndubuisi Okafor at the West Essex 39. Four plays later Cooper hit receiver Perry Mims in the right corner of the end zone from 22-yards out, putting Columbia up 14-0 after the PAT.
"Demetrius and I have a love-hate relationship. I hate him and then I want to love him and kiss him," said Columbia head coach Dave Curtin. "We told him not to dive over the top, he does and he fumbles the ball. But that's him, he has to make plays. He is the Brett Favre of high school football."
On the next West Essex drive, the Knights reached Columbia's 29 yard line, but a third down quarterback sack and a fourth down, sure-fire first down and touchdown pass was dropped, giving the ball back to Columbia. Two plays later, Denzell Nieves was romping down the sidelines for a 61-yard touchdown score on an option left play with 2:44 remaining in the third.
"At halftime when it was 7-0 I said 'guys, next step, we need to get to the next step,'" Curtin said. "Last year we let them outscore us in the second half, we need to outscore them, and we did."
Things got a little interesting early in the fourth quarter when Frank Marotti punched in a one-yard score and a bad snap on a punt went over Okafor's head, forcing the Cougars to take a safety. It turned a 21-0 blowout into a 21-9 battle.
After the free kick the Knights were set up with great field position at Columbia's 42. But West Essex did not gain a yard and gave the Cougars the ball back with 6:42 left. Columbia was able to run the clock down to 1:17, capping a nine play 58-yard drive with a Nieves four-yard touchdown, delivering the knockout blow.
The first half was a scoreless tie until Cooper hit Mims on a 12-yard fade pattern in the left back corner of the end zone. Previously the Cougars had driven the ball down to the Knight one-yard-line, but Cooper was stripped on a keeper on fourth and goal. Marotti recovered for the Knights in the end zone, giving them a touchback. The one positive from the Cougar drive however, was that Columbia ate up nearly 12 minutes of clock time. As a result West Essex ran just three offensive plays in the first quarter.
"I think it was first half jitters honestly," Cooper said of the slow start to the game. "We were seeing how it was, they were seeing how it was, everybody was getting a feel for the game. If anything, we're a second half team and we knew in the second half if we wanted to win this game, we had to come out and step on them."
The Knights had two scoring opportunities in the second quarter, getting down to Columbia's 25-yard line and then to the Cougar 14. Both drives ended with a turnover on downs.
"They outplayed us. They made big plays and we didn't make big plays," said Knight head coach Dave Drozjock. "It hurts, it hurts."
"Coach Klein had another great game-plan and we've hit hard all year, but this is the hardest they've hit all year," Curtin said. "They had the edge."
Clearly the differences in this contest was the play at the quarterback position and the performance of both defenses.
While Cooper did turn the ball over twice, once on an interception, West Essex's Tyler Fossetta completed just 2-of-7 for 34 yards - a stark difference when compared to Cooper.
However, Fossetta who has not been asked to throw much this season, was forced into throwing situations because of Columbia's defense. West Essex entered Saturday's game averaging 317 yards per game rushing. They were held to 113.
"Our game-plan was 'Demetrius it's you against him, you've got to be better,' and he was," Curtin said. "We game planned them, we had the film on them, we watched the film morning, noon and night."
Nieves ended the contest with 129 yards on 13 carries and two scores. Mims caught five passes for 95 yards and two scores and Columbia's Francis Eluwa caught four passes for 59 yards. On the Knights' side, there weren't too many great stat lines, O'Neill led all West Essex players with 64 yards on seven carries. Mike Mitchell was the team's leading receiver with 31 yards.
Columbia plays again on Friday at Belleville High School. West Essex finishes up their regular season at home against Barringer on Saturday.
