Sports

Cook cooks Albany, 35-12

• State power Cook High School crushes Albany High School on Thursday at home, keeping the Indians winless on the year.

Colin Chmielewski

ALBANY — At the end of Thursday night’s game, Cook and Albany kneeled at midfield to pray together. But before they did, Hornets coach Jim Scroggins took time to tell the Indians how much they had improved this season.

It was a meaningful message for an Albany team which had just been beaten, 35-12, and has yet to see that improvement pay off in the win column.

“Any little improvement is improvement for us,” Indians coach Reginald Mitchell said. “I can’t keep saying it over and over, but I am: We’re young, man. We’re younger than young. We make young mistakes.”

The Indians (0-7) were hurt on an early fumble that went for a safety, and the ensuing kick return set up Jawon Smith’s 11-yard run to make it 9-0.

Then, facing a fourth-and-1 on their own 39 late in the first half, Albany was stopped short. The Hornets (4-2) responded with a score to make it 16-0 at the half.

But the Indians showed some life in the second half. Albany keyed its best drive of the night with two nice slant passes from Barry Diamond — who finished with 101 yards in the air — to Albert Spurlin. Diamond capped it off with a 6-yard keeper to make it 16-6.

“He’s coming along,” Mitchell said of Diamond, who also led the Indians with 72 yards rushing. “It’s a slow process with him. This speed is different than what he’s used to. He’s just a sophomore, so it’s slowly but surely.”

Cook answered with three more scores to put the game away, but Albany added a late 8-yard TD run from another sophomore, Dontavious Brown, before the night was over.

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