FARMERS BRANCH – Of the 14 shots on goal Prosper sent his way, Coppell goalkeeper Barret Allen, junior at the School for the Talented and Gifted, saved all of them. His defensive skills were crucial to the 8-0 victory the Cowboys saw last night at the Children’s Health StarCenter. 

It was also his first game of the season. 

Allen, who had shoulder surgery in September, has only been able to attend practice since January. 

“It’s always nerve-wracking when you’ve been out for a whole season,” Allen said. “It’s like, ‘am I going to come back and be awful?’ But the boys had my back and it all worked out in the end.”

Coppell took the lead in the first period with a score by junior forward Austin Thurman. It was the only goal of the first period. The second held little action as well, with two goals from Coppell senior forward Clark Parlier and Coppell Middle School North eighth grader forward Michael Clark. 

“We started the game off slow, finished strong,” Coppell coach Chris Shakesby said. “We scored three goals in the first two periods but we came out flying in the third period.” 

In the third period, the Cowboys exploded, scoring five goals from senior forward Kaamii Jiwani, Thurman, senior forward Trevor Dame and Parlier to make the final score 8-0. With 32 shots on goal overall, Coppell applied heavy pressure towards the end of the second period and throughout the third, only held back by Prosper goalkeeper Nicholas Alford. 

The offensive surge in the third period was slightly counterbalanced when Coppell senior captain Ben Apperson went down with seven minutes left in the third period after head contact by Proper’s Tyler Rottermond. Though he had to leave the game, according to Shakesby, he will be fine. 

Coppell, having recently won a state title, still has more games left in the season. 

“The state championship is pretty awesome but we still got to work harder and make sure we finish the season strong and hopefully go out without losing the rest of the year,” Shakesby said. “We have one more regular season game and then we have our league playoffs. It’s a little different than traditional sports because state is before league finals. State will mean a lot more when we win league playoffs.”

Coppell travels to Plano next Thursday at 8 p.m. for its last regular season game. 

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