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Noah Copeland's 318 yards rushing powers Bandeis past Pflugerville in Class 5A Division II playoffs

SAN ANTONIO --- There will be two words Pflugerville (7-5) will most likely remember when they look back upon their playoff game with Bandeis (11-1) and that will be Noah Copeland. Copeland proved to be a load for the Panthers to handle as he rumbled for 318 yards to lead Bandeis to a 51-37 win in the second round of the Class 5A Division II playoffs.

"We never imagine it was going to turn into a shoot out between these two teams but high school football playoffs, second round of the playoffs, anything goes and we just feel really fortunate to come out on top", said Brandeis Head Coach John Campbell.

Copeland scored all but one of the Broncos' touchdowns with scoring runs that varied from 5 yards to 69 yards. His six touchdown performance was about as incredible a performance as you will ever see and it comes in just the second year of existence for Bandeis.

Pflugerville was able to take a 30-29 lead in the third quarter when Sammy Flowers caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Alex Dean.

"Pflugerville is very athletic and they have a whole lot of speed. It took us a full first half to get used to it and the bottom line is we got some stops when we knew we had to", said Campbell.

Bandeis moved back out in front on a 3-yard Copeland touchdown run later in the third quarter that put the Broncos up 36-30.

Copeland struck again early in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard run that was followed by a successful two-point conversion allowing Bandeis to take a 44-30 lead.

Pflugerville fought back to close the gap when Dean connected with Drew Travis on a 17-yard pass play for a touchdown that would cut the lead to 44-37.

It was now up to the Pflugerville defense to get a stop and they knew what they were up against, and that was a red hot Copeland that seemed to get stronger as the game wore on. Just as he had been doing all game long, Copeland found the end zone again. This time he used a couple of nifty moves to get past the Panther defense and race 66 yards to seal the win for Bandeis and give them the 51-37 win.

Bandeis moves on to the third round with the win where they will play Edinburg North at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Alamodome.