ABILENE -- A regulation high school football game lasts 48 minutes.

But in Saturday’s Class 4A Division I Region I semifinal, one can point at a span of three minutes and 47 seconds to see how Guyer beat Abilene Cooper 57-34.

Guyer’s win at Shotwell Stadium knocked the Cougars from the postseason for the second straight season.

The Wildcats’ roll started early in the second quarter, with a fourth-and-10 play for Cooper at its 24-yard line and the Cougars lined up to punt. A gaggle of Guyer defenders swarmed in and blocked the punt attempt, and defensive tackle Taylor Bible scooped the ball up and rumbled to the Cooper 10-yard line.

After a 9-yard run from the Cooper 10 by J.W. Walsh, Guyer was held to fourth-and-inches before Walsh punched it in to give Guyer a 14-0 lead with 9:43 remaining in the first half.

And the rout was on.

“It was quick,” the junior quarterback said. “It was real quick. I think that was the catalyst that got the game going. It was the best three minutes of the season by far.”

After the Wildcats’ defense forced a three-and-out, the Wildcats needed just four plays to go 65 yards on a drive that was capped by a 10-yard strike from Walsh to Quentin Gardener with 6:13 remaining in the half.

Seventeen seconds later, the Wildcats (12-1) were in the end zone again after Brendan Wright scooped up a fumbled kickoff return at the Cooper 17, and Walsh scored from 17 yards out on a scramble to put Guyer up 28-0.

“Their band didn’t play as loud [after the fourth touchdown],” Walsh said. “Their fans weren’t up on their feet as much as in the beginning of the game. You could definitely feel it [Cooper’s intensity] go from up here to down low. It was definitely a shot to their heart. We knew it, and we took advantage of it.”

Walsh finished the game with 113 yards on 14 carries and had three rushing touchdowns. He also threw for three scores while completing an efficient 8 of 9 passes for 143 yards to six different receivers.

“The routes that we threw, we knew we’d have,” Walsh said. “We saw the holes and where they’d be on film. We just exploited it.”

Senior running back Jaimaine Wilhite was also big in Guyer’s running game, going for 110 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.

And make no mistake, Guyer won with its ground game and opportunistic defense and special teams.

“We knew from the get-go that this is what we were gonna do,” Walsh said. “We knew from watching film that we could mash them, and we came out and once we saw we could attack them like we thought we could, we took advantage and kept it going.”

At no time was that ground game needed more than in the fourth quarter, after Guyer had run eight offensive snaps in the third quarter and came away with 22 points, leaving the Wildcats’ defense on the field for much of the quarter.

In the middle of the third quarter, Guyer opened the second-half scoring with a 16-yard pass from Walsh to tight end Dylan Moore, capping a seven-play drive that took 3:22 off the clock.

Then Guyer’s defense got in on the scoring as linebacker Jon King alertly picked up an errant backward pass from Cooper quarterback Ryan Heslep and took it 37 yards to the end zone.

After Cooper scored at the end of the third quarter to pull within 50-28, Guyer’s offense finally gave its defense a breather.

The Wildcats went 80 yards in 13 plays and chewed 6:40 off the clock, scoring on a 22-yard pass from Walsh to Luke Russell on fourth-and-8.

“That helped us out a lot,” junior linebacker Blake Terry said of the long drive. “It let us catch our wind. We knew they [Guyer’s offense] were trying to stall time for us and we knew it [a Guyer score] would have to happen eventually.”

After Cooper rebounded from a 24-0 deficit last week in its 51-41 win over El Paso Del Valle, Guyer head coach John Walsh said he knew getting a lead and running the clock would be a key to a win on Saturday.

“Once we got in the second half, we wanted the clock to chew,” John Walsh said. “We’d like to be the ones chewing it, but either way it was going down and we had a three-score lead so that was pretty comfortable. They [Cooper] have a reputation for being a second-half team. They can put up points in a hurry, and that drive kind of solidified the game that our offense wasn’t going away and we weren’t gonna break that three-touchdown cushion.”

While Guyer is known primarily as a running offense, the Wildcats opened up their passing game in their first two playoff matchups. But that part of the game was shut off on Saturday, and their head coach said that was the plan all along.

“Offensively, we were able to hit a few things consistently all game long in the run game and we stayed with it,” Walsh said. “We didn’t explore the playbook too much. When you’re in the playoffs and you get a lead, you just go with what’s working. There’s no style points in the playoffs.”

J.W. Walsh said the dominant showing on Cooper’s home field will give his team a lot of confidence going forward.

“There was a lot of emotion and hype built up, especially on their side,” he said. “It feels good to come in and just take it from them.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.

Guyer 57, Abilene Cooper 34

Guyer   7          21        22        7          --         57

Cooper            0          7          21        6          --         34

Scoring summary

First Quarter

G – Jaimaine Wilhite 13 run (Nick Leavitt kick), 0:16

Second Quarter

G – J.W. Walsh 1 run (Leavitt kick), 9:43

G – Quentin Gardener 10 pass from Walsh (Leavitt kick), 6:13

G – Walsh 17 run (Leavitt kick), 5:56

C – John Harvey 3 pass from Ryan Heslep (Ryan Lucas kick), 0:55

Third Quarter

C – Alford Cooper 6 run (Lucas kick), 9:49

G – Dylan Moore 16 pass from Walsh (Leavitt kick), 6:27

G – Jon King 37 fumble return (Leavitt kick), 4:39

C – John Harvey 14 pass from Heslep (Lucas kick), 1:46

G – Walsh 9 run (Moore pass from Luke Russell), 1:27

C – Davon Riddick 65 run (Lucas kick), 0:33

Fourth Quarter

G – Russell 22 pass from Walsh (Leavitt kick), 5:50

C – Cooper 17 pass from Heslep (run failed), 3:04

Team Statistics

            G         AC

First downs      12        23

Rushing yards   37-243 26-197

Passing yards    143      292

Total yards                                               386   489

Passes  8-9-0   24-36-0

Fumbles-lost     0-0       2-2

Punts-avg         2-30.5  3-17.7

Penalties-yds    8-65     6-45

Individual Statistics

Rushing: G – Jaimaine Wilhite 17-110, J.W. Walsh 14-113, Josh Allen 1-5, Cameron Hunter 2-5, Sebastian Williams 3-10. AC – Kendrick Powdrill 1-2, Alford Cooper 7-32, Davon Riddick 7-75, Ryan Heslep 11-88. 

Passing: G – J.W. Walsh 8-9-0-143. AC – Ryan Heslep 24-36-0-292.

Receiving: G – Connor Crane 1-12, Quentin Gardener 2-21, Luke Russell 2-37, Daniel Mercer 1-48, Cameron Hunter 1-9, Dylan Moore 1-16. AC – Khole Jackson 4-77, Tommy Bowman 3-30, Reese Williams 3-27, Davon Riddick 2-36, Alford Cooper 5-60, John Harvey 3-29, Sammy Beall 4-33.

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