Cottonwood speeds past Houston Academy

COTTONWOOD — Cottonwood’s Killer Ds — Desmond Debose, D.D. Dawsey and a stingy defense — turned in a straight-A performance Friday night as the unbeaten Bears drilled Houston Academy 35-9.

Debose, the Bears’ quarterback, rushed for 131 yards on 12 carries and threw two touchdown passes. Dawsey ran 11 times for 132 yards and scored four touchdowns with an 84-yard touchdown run, two 7-yard runs and a 30-yard pass from Debose.

“It’s easy to call plays when you’ve got good athletes,” Cottonwood coach Toby Greene said. “Desmond had a good night running the ball and made some really good throws. He made good decisions on those throws. That opened up the run game.

“D.D. used his big-play ability and had another big night. Our line did a good job knocking some holes open.”

The Bears’ physical play up front was a key against the younger Raiders, who fell to 4-2.

“It kind of speaks for itself,” HA coach Jimmy Addison said. “They’ve got a real fine football team. You can’t make mistakes against them — and we made too many mistakes. ... They took advantage of it. You can’t take anything away from them.”

Cottonwood’s quick-strike ability showed on its second possession of the game — after a fumble ended a promising Raider drive inside the Cottonwood 10-yard line.

Two plays later, Dawsey sprinted around right end and simply outran everyone to the end zone for an 84-yard run. He added the extra point to make it 7-0.

A 19-yard HA punt set up Cottonwood’s next score. A holding penalty wiped out a big gain by Dawsey, but Debose erased the error when he threw a 42-yard touchdown strike to Austin North for a touchdown with 2:41 left in the first quarter.

The Raiders again turned the ball over on its next possession. Cottonwood took advantage when Debose hit Dawsey down the middle of the field on fourth-and-17 from the 30 for a touchdown that made it 21-0 with 11:44 left in the second period.

The Bears added to the lead when they marched 93 yards in nine plays. Dawsey ran for 18 yards on third-and-5 to keep it going. Debose ran a quarterback draw for 32 yards to the 21, then added 14 yards to the 7. Dawsey scored on the next play as Cottonwood enjoyed a 28-0 lead with 5:01 left in the first half.

Houston Academy turned the ball over again when Justin Cullifer’s long pass for Ryan Brown was picked off by North on the 2-yard line.

But a low snap out of the shotgun led to a safety as the HA defense swarmed Debose, cutting it to 28-2.

It stayed that way through halftime. Cottonwood added to its lead on the final play of the third quarter, when Dawsey capped a 72-yard, six-play march with a 7-yard touchdown run.

Houston Academy’s workhorse tailback Damion Harris carried 24 times for 83 yards.

The Raiders scored after recovering a Cottonwood fumble at the 25-yard line.

Cullifer threw a strike to Thomas Bailey on Houston Academy’s next play for its only touchdown with 5:15 left in the game. Lawson Brakefield’s PAT made it 35-9.

“I’m proud of our kids, starting with our defense,” Greene said. “The defense played outstanding.”

The Bears were motivated by a blossoming rivalry in this series.

“We wanted to be physical up front,” Greene said. “The last two years they were more physical than we were and we hadn’t beaten them.

“HA’s a good football team. They’re going to win a lot of games and make a playoff run themselves.”