PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Odessa High’s Mikey Cota

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - “It just felt awesome, it was after the game, I remember screaming after the game, I was losing my voice, I was just excited,” said Quarterback Mikey Cota.

That excitement could’ve been heartbreak for Cota and the Odessa Bronchos. After scoring the opening touchdown Big Red went on to trail Mojo 21-7 in the second quarter.

“We were beating ourselves in the first half, penalties, holding calls, false starts, just weren’t executing what we needed to execute, and we finally, just took a deep breath, hit the reset button, just started going out there and executing,” said Cota.

With four minutes remaining in the fourth, mojo still led by a touchdown, and Cota had to find a way to bring the Big Red back.

“I just feel like no moments too big for him, he ends up making some really good throws when it counts, and that’s kind of who you want to have the ball in their hand in the fourth quarter, you want a Quarterback like that,” said Head Coach Dusty Ortiz.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, we knew going out there was going to be a war, we had to go out there and just beat them,” said Cota.

Mikey threw his fifth touchdown pass of the night before sending the game into overtime. on the final play of the game, Cota handed the ball off to Dejan Green for the game-winning touchdown, clinching the Bronchos’ first win over the Panthers since 2013. Mikey knew he was a part of Odessa history.

“There were these plaques that they had our name going in the locker room where it said Mikey Cota and stuff like that, I had to take it home, that’s a souvenir, that was a big team win, a big moment in history,” said Cota.

“He’s pretty much-done everything he’s done on the JV level and just brought it to the high school level, he’s done a really good job with that and you know I think the kids really believe in him and they know, put the ball in his hand we’re able to get a win no matter what, said Dusty Ortiz.

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