Cook leads Hawks to win over Warriors

DONNELLSON —  Brett Cook threw for two touchdowns, had a winding touchdown run through the Van Buren County defense called back because of a penalty, had an interception … and he’s planning on running in a cross country meet on Saturday.
“Have to be here at school at 5:45 in the morning,” the Central Lee junior said. “Hopefully I’m not cramping up.”
Cook did just about everything possible in the Hawks’ 28-8 win in Friday’s season opener.
He rushed nine times for 100 yards, threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Will Hayes in the first quarter and a 32-yard touchdown pass to Carver Hayes in the second quarter, and had an interception two plays into the second half that was converted into a 35-yard touchdown run by Ward Fraise that gave the Hawks a 28-0 lead.
“Brett is a competitor,” Central Lee coach Doug Dodds said. “He just works hard. He wants the best, not only for himself, but the team. He's equally as happy when somebody else has that much success as he has. So that's awesome to see, and that's what we’re really proud of.”
Cook was the backup quarterback to Kayden Calfee the last two seasons, and admitted to some pre-game jitters making his first start.
“This whole week I kind of had them,” he said. “But once I got on the field after the opening kickoff, I was fine.”
The touchdown pass to Will Hayes came on a fourth-down play after the Hawks recovered a muffed punt, the first in a night of mistakes by the Warriors.

“It got the momentum started early,” Cook said. “People don’t think we pass the ball too much, but we had two passing touchdowns tonight, and that’s a big deal.”
“That one early made a big difference,” Dodds said. “Will’s a good player and Brett made a good throw, and the protection was really good too.”
Cook nearly had his own touchdown, when he twisted through the Van Buren defense until breaking through for a 23-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, but the play was called back by a penalty against the Hawks.
Central Lee’s defense kept the Warriors out of the end zone until the final minute of the game, but it was a big red-zone stand at the end of the first half that was particularly important.
Van Buren had the ball at the Central Lee 12-yard line after a fumble return, but couldn’t get the ball into the end zone on four attempts. Carson Morrison had a pass breakup in the end zone on second down, then Carver Hayes had one on fourth down.
Even the lone touchdown for the Warriors — a 4-yard pass from Will Cocherell to Ethan Cochenour — came on fourth down against the Hawks’ reserves.
“We want to play our style of football,” Dodds said. “We want to control the football. We want to make teams go a long way. We want them to have to out-execute us. Tonight we wanted to make them out-execute us, and they couldn't. They fumbled it, turned it over. They gave us opportunities, and we were able to get short fields in those situations.”
The Hawks play host to Albia next Friday.
“We’re going to have to do a better job up front,” Dodds said. “Our line did a lot of good things, but we’ve got to be more physical up front. And we’re going to be facing a really good passing game, so we’re going to have to tighten up our coverages. We did some good things tonight, but we can be better.”