Steele running back Malcolm Brown and Brandeis running back Noah Copeland could have been excused for sleeping in Sunday morning.
After carrying their teams in separate second-round playoff games Saturday at the Alamodome, Brown and Copeland deserved some extra sack time.
Brown, a junior, rushed for 299 yards and one touchdown in Steele’s gut-wrenching 27-20 loss to Lake Travis in a Class 4A Division I game.
A few hours later, Copeland extended his senior season by rambling for 318 yards and six TDs in Brandeis’ 51-37 victory over Pflugerville in a 5A Division II clash.
After watching Brown slice up the Lake Travis defense, I figured nothing I saw in the Brandeis-Pflugerville game could top his impressive performance. Gee, was I wrong.
Copeland demonstrated once again that he’s a threat to score every time he touches the ball. Two of his scoring runs went for 69 and 66 yards, with the latter coming when he reversed his field.
“I don’t even know what to say about him anymore,” Brandeis head coach John Campbell said. “He’s been phenomenal all season and has gotten better with each game.”
Copeland, 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds, has rushed for 2,087 yards and 32 TDs on 236 carries this season.
As he has done throughout the season, Copeland credited his offensive line.
“I just run,” he said.
Broncos linebacker Cody Rogers called Copeland “the key” to the team’s success
“I’m always happy to watch him from the sideline,” Rogers said.
If you haven’t seen Brandeis play and enjoy high school football, I recommend you watch the Broncos play Edinburg North in the regional semifinals at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Alamodome.
While Copeland alone is worth the price of admission, Brandeis has several other talented players who have made the school’s second season – yes, second season – a truly memorable one.
That the Broncos are 11-1 is a testament to the great job Campbell and his staff have done in such a short time.
“We love to play for him,” Copeland said, referring to Campbell.
We’ll have to wait until next year to see Brown play again, but the last game of his junior season gave us plenty to talk about for months.
Lake Travis certainly won’t forget Brown anytime soon.
“Hitting him is like hitting a stone wall,” Cavs cornerback Taylor Wrinkle said. “I can see him playing in the NFL someday.”
The Cavs withstood a furious rally by Steele to record their 42nd consecutive victory, stopping Brown on a fourth-and-goal play at the 3 with 12 seconds left.
Brown, who finished with 33 carries, stood tall in defeat. He didn’t make excuses and praised Lake Travis for playing like the champion that it is.
“Looking back at it now, we played our game the best we could,” Brown said Sunday. “It just didn’t work out. We were always confident we were going to win, even when we fell behind.
“We told ourselves that we had to keep our composure. You have to give Lake Travis a lot of credit. That’s why they’re state champions.”
Brown finished his junior season with 2,196 yards and 33 TDs on 198 carries.
“I feel for our seniors,” Brown said. “It was a blessing to play with those guys. They are some of the originals. They were here when the school had just opened, and I’ve heard stories of how hard they worked to progress.”
The Knights have enjoyed a meteoric rise under head coach Mike Jinks, who was head coach at Burbank for one season before moving to Steele when it opened in 2005. The Knights are 30-7 since going 3-7 in their first varsity season in 2006. This year’s team finished 9-3.
Lake Travis, which beat the Knights 38-21 in the same playoff round last year, has won 4A state championships each of the past two years.
“It’s tough to lose like this,” Brown said. “I just want to work hard in the offseason and get better.”
Brown, who is 6 feet and 213 pounds, punished the Lake Travis defense from start to finish. Whether he was running inside or outside, Brown proved once again that he’s a load to bring down.
Free safety Dan Akers, the grandson of former University of Texas football coach Fred Akers, raved about Brown.
“He’s big and he’s fast, and he’s hard to tackle,” Akers said. “He has a great combination of speed and strength. We love competition, so it was great to play against him.”
As tough as the loss was on Jinks, he can take solace in the knowledge that he’ll have No. 28 for one more season.
“The great thing about Malcolm is that he’s a great person and a hard worker,” Jinks said.
That makes Brown’s success all the more gratifying for everybody. While he exudes a quiet confidence that inspires his teammates, Brown isn’t the cocky, chest-beating, look-at-me type of athlete.
He’s from the old school. He lets his playing speak for itself.
“Malcolm has a lot of character,” Lake Travis head coach Chad Morris.
And a promising future.
