Asa Cooper’s quick scores lead Coal City past Lisle

COAL CITY – Someone needs to tell Asa Cooper that football is not supposed to be as easy as he makes it look.

Cooper, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound combination of strength and speed, scored the first three times he touched the ball Thursday night to help spark Coal City to its third straight win, a 34-6 defeat of Illinois Central Eight Conference rival Lisle.

Ashton Harvey, who finished with 14 tackles, including five for loss, set the tone almost immediately as he pounced on a fumble on Lisle’s first play from scrimmage, giving Coal City the ball on the Lisle 9. Cooper then took a handoff and started to the left, found no room, reversed field and went nine yards for a touchdown.

Lisle fumbled again on its next drive, and this time Brady Best recovered at the Lisle 46. Cooper ran a sweep to the left side, found a lane and outran the Lisle defense for a 46-yard touchdown and a 13-0 lead after Aydan Murphey’s kick with 10:14 still to play in the first quarter. Coal City’s defense forced a punt and the Coalers took over on their own 49. This time, Cooper swept to the right, turned the corner and turned on the jets for a 51-yard TD run and a 20-0 lead.

“I got great blocking,” Cooper said. “I saw the lane and cut back. We saw on film that the cutback was there, and we took advantage of it.”

Midway through the second quarter, Coal City forced another Lisle punt, but the ball hit a Coaler returner and Lisle recovered the loose ball at the Coal City 20. Eight plays later, Lisle’s Michael Walker scored on 4th and goal from the 2 to pull Lisle to within 20-6 with 2:41 to go in the first half. It was the first points scored against Coal City this year.

Other than the touchdown, there was little to criticize about the Coal City defense.

“We knew they [Lisle] wanted to come down here and punch us in the mouth,” Harvey said. “But we punched them in the mouth first and got off to a great start.

“Our defense is pretty unstoppable. We knew we had lost a lot of guys from last year, but a lot of the younger guys are stepping up and playing well. It’s nice to have Asa in the backfield on offense, too. He’s something else.”

Coal City had a chance to run its two-minute offense, and sophomore quarterback Keegan Crater executed. After six Cooper runs moved Coal City from its own 33 to Lisle’s 34, Crater hit Murphey with a 21-yard pass. After an incompletion, Crater rolled to his right and found Cooper in the corner of the end zone for a 13-yard TD and Cooper’s fourth score of the night as the Coalers took a 27-6 lead into halftime, Crater finished 3 for 5 through the air for 58 yards, while Cooper finished with 155 rushing yards on 14 carries.

Coal City capped the scoring in the fourth quarter when Nick Seplak (6 carries, 33 yards) scored from a yard out.

“The defense gave us the ball, we got some great blocking and Asa did the rest,” Coal City coach Dan Hutchings said. “The offensive line did a great job and Nick Seplak had some great blocks as the lead blocker. Nick ran the ball hard when he got the chance, too.

“Everyone played well tonight. Ashton Harvey had a huge game, and Josh Mikel came in and played really well. The defense played hard all night, and the offensive line did a great job.”