‘We’re our own worst enemy’: Arlington Bowie falls flat in lopsided loss to Coppell

Arlington Bowie came into Week 3 with two losses by a combined margin of 8 points. The Volunteers hung tough in both losses to Flower Mound and Keller.

However, Coppell didn’t let the Bowie hang around from the start on Friday night at Wilemon Field.

The Class 6A No. 12-ranked Cowboys scored on their first five possessions to set the tone in a 72-33 victory in a non-district game for each squad.

“The simple thing to put is we’re our own worst enemy right now,” Bowie head coach Joseph Sam said. “We got a bunch of people that read press clippings and not worry about their job. We need to be humbled. We are four plays away from being 2-0 and this game ... they could’ve scored 100 the way we played defense tonight. I don’t know what football team that is. That wasn’t the Bowie Volunteers. I don’t know who that was.”

According to Max Preps, this was the first matchup between the two schools dating back to the 2004 season.

A playoff team last year, the Volunteers are now 0-3 — for the first time since 2005 — heading into a Week 4 meeting with Grand Prairie, in the District 8-6A opener for both.

“We schedule the preseason so the kids could get a glimpse of what playoffs look like and I hope they got that and woke up today,” Sam said. “Talent-wise, we can play with anyone. No one will be more talented than us, but people are more disciplined. There’s something I’m doing wrong and I got to fix that.”

The Volunteers’ defense struggled to contain the passing attack of Edward Griffin. The Cowboys senior is a Baylor pledge who led his squad to the third round of the Division II playoffs last year.

The 3-star recruit was nearly perfect in the first half, completing 13 of 15 passes for 250 yards and 4 touchdowns. He completed 13 straight passes before a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage and a broken-up pass happened on back-to-back plays late in the second quarter.

Five of his completions were on the first drive of the game, capped on a 9-yard strike to Tucker Cusano at the 7:56 mark in the first quarter. Harry Hassman had a 41-yard touchdown catch on the second drive, while the two connected for a 16-yard score on the third possession.

Griffin later added a 22-yard touchdown pass to Scott Fishpaw for his fourth touchdown, making it 27-0 in the second quarter.

Bowie accounted for two of the final three touchdowns in the first half, but trailed 34-14 at intermission.

Quarterback Larry Nichols hit Zion Shelley on consecutive plays that netted 34 yards. A third completion of the drive — 15 yards to Dilon Tallie — pushed the ball to the Cowboys’ 27-yard line.

Nichols, a senior, scrambled on the next play and cut to his left while running near the goal line to score on the next play. Leo Espindola’s PAT made it 27-7.

In the final seconds of the second quarter, Sam called a timeout to force Coppell to punt for the first time with 11 seconds left.

Okello Okello picked up a blocked punt and ran it back 24 yards for a score with 2 seconds left.

Between those two Volunteers’ touchdowns, the Cowboys (3-0) got a 69-yard touchdown run up the middle from O’Marion Mbakwe.

The second half featured another touchdown pass from Griffin to Hassman — this one for 29 yards early in the fourth — to give him five touchdowns on the night.

Each team added long-scoring plays in the third quarter. Nichols added a 64-yard score and on the next offensive play, Mbakwe ran for a 62-yard score for Coppell.

Bowie backup quarterback Jayden Bibbs connected with Keidric Osunde-Brown for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, while Denzel Ponder ran in a touchdown from 2 yards out for the Volunteers.

Coppell tacked on a 52-yard scoring run by Mbakwe and Josh Lock scored twice, on runs of 51 and 27 yards, in the final 8 minutes.

“We’ll see what kind of team we are on Monday,” he said. “We lost this game on Monday. We didn’t lose this game tonight. We lost it on Monday. You can put that in the paper.”