By james art LUBBOCK — When Kenji Johnson caught a 25-yard fade pass for a touchdown with no time left on the clock, the next decision for Memorial coach Mark Bindel was simple.
“I knew we were going for two and the win,” Bindel said.
Still trailing Lubbock-Cooper by a point, quarterback Joe Castles rolled to his right, patiently waited for Cooper’s cornerback to drop and cover the corner route behind him, and hit Eric Powell underneath for the winning points.
Memorial picked up the program’s biggest first-year win to date, 44-43 Friday at Pirate Stadium, re-entering the District 2-5A Division II title race.
It’s the second straight week Memorial (6-2, 3-1) has played in a game that was decided on the final play, losing to Abilene Wylie (6-1, 4-0) in a playoff game last week. Cooper (7-2, 4-1) plays at Wylie next week to decide the 2-5A DII championship and the top three postseason seeds.
A low-scoring first-half game — tied 7-7 at halftime — turned into a penalty shootout in the final two quarters. The two teams combined for 52 points in the fourth quarter.
The lead changed hands three times in the final 2:33.
Quarterback Ryan Rodriguez completed 18 of 26 for 325 yards and five TDs. The Mavs struggled to cover their Texas Tech commit Michael Dever, who finished with 219 yards and three scores on eight receptions.
But Cassels responded with the best game of his career, completing 22 of 38 passes for 400 yards, four TDs and one interception.
“This is a big win for this program,” Bindel said. “I am very happy for these children. We had a lot of guys step up because we were pretty beat up. We think highly of Cooper. It’s a great team and a great program. This is huge for us in our first year.”