By Malcolm Butler
Lane Thomas rushed for 143 yards and three touchdowns and scored a fourth on a defensive play, but Cedar Creek saw a 22-point lead evaporate as the Cougars fell 30-29 at Vidalia Friday night.
Thomas accounted for three of those scores in the opening quarter, hitting paydirt on runs of 2 and 5 yards and then returning an interception 35 yards as Cedar Creek led 22-0 at the end of the first quarter.
“We were running the counter, and it really worked for us,” said Creek Head Coach Matt Middleton. “They had a four-down front early on, and we were able to get some chunk plays. We got out 22-0.”
Thomas’ first TD run came with 10:31 to play in the first quarter and Davis Long’s extra point made the score 7-0 Cougars. Exactly six minutes later Thomas found the end zone again on a 8-yard run as Long’s PAT upped the lead to 14-0.
Less than 60 seconds later, the Cougars defense struck as Thomas intercepted a pass and raced 35 yards for another score. Ladd Thompson ran the two-point conversion in and the Cougars seemed to be in control up 22-0.
Vidalia got on the scoreboard early in the second quarter when quarterback ??? Hayes ran it in from five-yards out. Hayes’ two-point conversion run was successful to cut the Cougars lead to 22-8.
Thomas and the Cougars offense then scored again. This time the Creek tailback took a handoff and scored on a 5-yard run and Long’s extra point made the score 29-8 with 4:34 to play in the second quarter.
It appeared as though the Cougars would take a 21-point lead into the half, but with only :06 remaining in the second quarter, Hayes found an open teammate for a 23-yard TD strike. Hayes’ two-point conversion run was successful again as the halftime score was 29-16.
“It was 29 to 8 and we got the ball back and fumbled on the first play,” said Middleton. “We got beat up front. They penetrated. Then they score right before the half to make it 29-16.”
The Cougars looked poised to score in the third quarter, using a long drive to take the football inside the Vidalia 15-yard line. However, the drive stalled and the Cougars failed on a fourth-down attempt to turn the ball over on downs.
“We came out and had a long drive to start the second half,” said Middleton. “We stalled and we couldn’t score in the red zone. We had another drive where we did the same thing.”
Hayes struck again early in the fourth quarter, escaping pressure and racing 61-yards for the second of his three TD runs in the game. The two-point conversion was unsuccessful and Creek led 29-22.
“He’s a special talent, and he runs pretty well,” said Middleton about the Vidalia QB. “Bottom line is we have to score points. We had our chances again offensively.. We didn’t get a red zone score when we needed it. That was one of the differences in the game.”
Following a Creek punt, Vidalia took over and marched down the field again. This time Hayes scored on a 2-yard run with 3:50 to play in the game to make the score 29-28. Vidalia chose to go for two again and following back-to-back offside penalties on the Creek, Hayes scored easily from a yard out to give Vidalia its first lead of the game at 30-29.
“I haven’t been able to see the film yet,” said Middleton on the back-to-back offsides penalties prior to the two-point conversion. “I don’t know. I’ve got to go back to the film. And watch it.”
Cedar Creek had one last opportunity. After a good kick return that set the Cougars up close to midfield, a screen pass was taken all the way down to the Vidalia 10-yard line. However, a holding penalty was called on the play negating the yardage. Creek eventually turned the ball over on downs and never got it back.
“The last drive we had like second and 15 and we took a screen down to their 10-yard line and they threw a flag,” said Middleon. “We had a kick return at one point that was a turnover. He was down on contact but they called it a fumble. So there were some crucial things all the way around that went against us. We just didn’t get it done.”
Caden Middleton completed 12-of-22 passes for 157 yards in the game. Thompson caught five passes for 47 yards while Connor Norris added two catches for 36 yards and Thomas two catches for 30 yards. Brian Osborne also had two receptions for 31 yards.
Quincy Lewis led the Creek defense with 16 tackles while Thomas added 11 tackles, a sack and the pick six. Reagan Pike and Carter Hill had seven tackles each while Lawson Lillo and Thompson each added six tackles.
“I saw some progress,” said Middleton. “But I also saw that we were really, really tired, again. I would have thought we were going to work through some of that. We still have some depth issues and some things like that. We had some opportunities but didn’t capitalize or take advantage of them.”
