The celebration was still in full swing when a group of Cooper High School football players gathered at the 50-yard line and let out with one final cheer.

The Cougars counted to three and let out a cheer of "Defense."

It was the only appropriate way to end a game in which Cooper's defense came up with a series of big plays to give the Cougars a 17-14 win over Abilene High before a crowd of 15,000 at Shotwell Stadium.

"This is the third week in a row that our defense has come up big for us," Cooper coach Randy Quisenberry said. "We came up with the big stops when we needed them."

Thanks to those big plays, Cooper tied with Midland Lee for the District 4-5A title and earned a date with Amarillo High 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Lowery Field in Lubbock in the first round of the Class 5A Division II playoffs.

Abilene High ended up with the second Division II playoff berth and will play Lubbock Monterey at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the same site.

Cooper will enter that game with the momentum that came with winning its 40th game against Abilene High in part because of a stand the Cougars made at the end of the game.

Cooper was up 17-14 when Abilene High got the ball at its 46-yard line with two minutes and seven seconds left in the game.

Abilene High quarterback Kevin Goodman threw a 17-yard pass to Robert Spells to give the Eagles a first down at Cooper's 42-yard line with 1:50 left.

That was as close as the Eagles would come.

Goodman threw a pair of incomplete passes. Cooper defensive back Coby Mavroulis then intercepted a pass at the Cougars' 5-yard line with 1:23 left.

"It just bounced my way," Mavroulis said. "We came up with the big plays and got some big stops."

Cooper held Goodman to 68 yards passing in the game, a season low. Abilene High was led by Jonathan Johnson, who rushed for 73 yards.

Cooper's offense managed just 249 yards of total offense, but came up with the big plays, including a game-winning pass from Jordan Neal to tight end Kurtis Lay with 9:41 to go in the fourth quarter.

"We were looking to throw to ball to Mavroulis, but I told Jordan to go to Kurtis if Coby was not open," Quisenberry said.

Neal completed the pass to give Cooper a 17-14 lead. Neal threw for 166 yards while tailback Tremaine Diles had 85 yards rushing.

Cooper's defense made the total stand up on a night when it came up with several key stops.

"They played great," Abilene High coach Steve Warren said. "Their defense made the big stops. You can't take anything away from them."

The first of those stops came at the end of the first half when both teams had a chance to break at 7-7 and carry a lead into intermission.

Cooper managed to convert on its opportunity to take a 10-7 lead after coming up with a key stop deep in its own end of the field.

Abilene High drove from its 15-yard line to Cooper's 19 thanks in part to a pair of penalties on the Cougars. The Eagles gained just two yards on three plays and was forced to punt the ball away to Cooper.

Abilene High got the ball back when the Cougars were flagged for an illegal substitution and a personal foul. The Eagles gained 20 yards and a first down thanks to the penalties and then drove to Cooper's 15-yard line.

Cooper came up with a defensive stand when Goodman misfired on third- and fourth-down pass attempts when the Eagles needed five yards to keep their drive alive.

Cooper took over possession of the ball and drove all the way to Abilene High's 1-yard line thanks to a pair of big plays on consecutive downs by Cunningham and Diles.

Cunningham caught a pass that went through the hands of two Abilene High defenders for a 28-yard gain. On the next play Diles broke off a 57-yard run that gave Cooper a first down at Abilene High's 10-yard line with 1:51 left in the half.

Cooper used a pair of runs by Diles and a 4-yard offsides penalty by Abilene High to drive the ball to the 1-yard line.

Diles failed to get into the end zone on third down, leaving Cooper with a decision to make on fourth down and goal to go. Four timeouts were called by both teams before Cooper lined up to run a play.

The Cougars never got that play off because one of their lineman jumped off sides. The penalty moved the ball to the 6-yard line where Josh Brown kicked a 23-yard field goal to give Cooper a 10-7 edge at intermission.

Both teams finish the regular season with 7-3 records, but Cooper is 4-1 in district and Abilene High 2-3.

Cooper 7 3 0 7 — 17

AHS 0 7 7 0 — 14

C - Tony Cunningham 6 pass from Jordan Neal (Josh Brown kick)

A - Kevin Goodman 1 run (Justin Wolcott kick)

C - Brown 22 field goal

A - Kevan Albright 13 pass from Goodman (Wolcott kick)

C - Kurtis Lay 34 pass from Neal (Brown kick)

Cooper Abilene High

First Downs 10 16

Rushes-yards 29-83 36-155

Passing-yards 166 68

Comp-Att-Int 13-21-1 7-24-2

Punts-avg 6-35.0 4-40.0

Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 7-62 8-44

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Cooper: Termaine Diles 21-85, Jordan Neal 8- (-2). Abilene High: Jonathon Johnson 12-73, David Willis 12-43, Kevin Goodman 8-41, Robert Spells 2-4, Marcus Johnson 2-4.

PASSING - Cooper: Jordan Neal 13-21-1, 166 yards. Abilene High: Kevin Goodman 7-24-2, 68 yards.

RECEIVING - Cooper: Kurtis Lay 2-44, Coby Mavroulis 3-31, Justin Harper 1-2, Tony Cunningham 4-56, Termaine Diles 1- (-1). Abilene High: Chris Willingham 1-14, Robert Spells 5-41, Kevan Allbright 1-13.