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SAN ANTONIO — Noah Copeland is good.

No wait.

Noah Copeland is great.

Copeland burned the Edinburg North Cougars for 241 rushing yards and three touchdown in just over one half of play as the San Antonio Brandeis Broncos galloped past the Coogs, 51-14, at the Alamodome on Saturday.

Copeland only had three carries in the second half. But on his first one, the speedy back broke loose for a 67-yard TD run that put the Broncos (12-1) ahead 41-14 only 16 seconds into the half.

"That guy killed us," said Coog head coach Roy Garza, unable to really find anything to say after the defeat. "We just couldn’t answer back."

Actually, Edinburg North had answered back.

Twice.

The Cougars (9-4) went tick for tack with the bigger and faster Broncos in the early going.

Brandeis scored first with 8:02 in the first on a 31-yard pass from Michael Barrientos to Dominique Britto.

Then the Cougars marched 88 yards right back behind the gritty Matt Munoz and tied the game on a seven-yard run by Munoz.

San Antonio retook the lead on Copeland’s first TD of the night from 11 yards with 2:13 in the first quarter.

But the Coogs and Munoz weren’t gonna back down.

Munoz hit Danny Cardenas in stride for an 88-yard strike that tied the game again and gave Edinburg North hope.

No, gave the Rio Grande Valley hope.

This had become a game as the first stanza ended in a 14 all tie and the Cougars weren’t gonna get pushed around.

Despite being forced to punt on their next drive and giving up another score, the Cougars came right back and looked ready to cut the Broncos’ lead to at least 27-20 on their next drive.

Edinburg drove to the SA two-yard line ready to answer the call again.

Instead, Munoz got intercepted by Cody Rogers right at the goal line killing the drive and momentum with about two minutes left in the half.

Brandeis drove to the EN 47 as time seemed to expire in the half.

But Brandeis head coach John Campbell called a timeout with one second left.

Just enough time for a Hail Mary and Britto came down with his second score of the half as the Broncos had pretty much sealed the deal by then.

If not, Copeland’s 67-yard sixer in to start the third did it.

The Broncos pretty much just ran the clock out the entire second half.

"When they missed the extra point (20-14), it kept us in the game," Garza said. "The end of the first half was the difference. Then No. 2 scores and now we’re just trying to keep it from getting out of hand."

Brandeis ended with 488 total yards including 321 on the ground.

The Cougars played the like the Coogs of the first 12 games in the first half.

But the second was a different story as Brandeis held Edinburg North to 397 total yards including 313 in the first half.

Munoz passed for a career high 294 yards completing 14-of-21 passes with two picks. He rushed for 26 yards and one TD.

The two-minute disaster was a familiar occurrence with the other two Valley representatives.

In PSJA North’s game Friday against New Braunfels, the Raiders cut the Unicorns lead to 20-14 with about two minutes left in the game. But New Braunfels moved that ball quickly to take score a TD with 57 seconds left in the half and extend its lead to 27-14. A turnover by the Raiders to start the second half doomed Pharr North’s chances.

In Harlingen’s game Friday against Austin Westlake, the Cardinals cut the Chaps lead to 12-7 with 2:23 left in the first half. A breakdown in the Cards secondary and a blocked field goal returned for a TD made it 25-7 Chaps at halftime.

A jinx? Unlikely. But Valley Week remains a topic of discussion one more year.