By T. Scott Boatright
A long, five-game homestand for Cedar Creek culminated with their shortest game of the season.
The Cougars built a 42-point advantage over Lafayette Renaissance Charter Academy less than two minutes into the second quarter, starting a running clock the rest of the game that Cedar Creek won 49-6.
Neither team scored in the final two quarters. It was the fifth straight win for the Cougars.
Cedar Creek scored early in the game with Lane Thomas stepping through the right B-gap from one-yard out that put the Cougars up 7-0 at the 10:57 mark of the opening stanza following the point-after tkick by Davis Long.
The Cougars, Long’s leg and the scoreboard were only starting to warm up.
After Cedar Creek held LRCA to a three-and-out on the ensuing, Ladd Thompson returned a punt 70 yards to the Tigers’ eight-yard line before Cougars quarterback Caden Middleton lofted a scoring strike to Connor Norris, who extended himself high to haul in the ball to help put Creek on top 14-0 with 7:30 left in the first quarter.
The Cougars then held LRCA to another three-and-out before taking advantage of a negative three-yard punt by the Tigers to take over at the LRCA 39.
This is the first year of football for Lafayette Renaissance, which is comprised of nothing but inexperienced sophomores and juniors.
Creek then drove into the red zone on the ensuing play as Middleton tossed a screen to Thomas, who danced and juked around multiple attempted tacklers for a 27-yard gain to the Tigers’ 12-yard line.
After an incomplete pass, Middleton scrambled right and just before reaching the line of scrimmage pulled up and fired a jump pass to Thompson for the touchdown that put the Cougars on top 21-0 at the 3:34 mark of the first quarter.
Grey Worthey’s interception and 25-yard return on LRCA’s ensuing possession set Cedar Creek up at the Tigers’ 15, and on the next play Thomas took the pitch and broke an attempted arm tackle to hit paydirt and extend the Cougars’ lead to 28-0 with 3:04 left in the opening stanza.
After the Cougars forced another LRCA punt, Thomas danced this way through the Tigers’ defenders on a 27-yard scoring scamper that pushed Cedar Creek’s lead to 35-0 with 10:43 left in the first half.
On a third and 10 situation on the ensuing drive, the LRCA quarterback threw a pass behind the line of scrimmage. It hit the turf and laid there for around seconds before Qunicy Lewis raced in, scooped up the ball and returned the unintended lateral 29-yards for the score that put the Cougars’ on top 42-0 and started the running clock at the 10:19 mark of the second quarter.
Lafayette Renaissance completed a 36-yard pass on the next drive, moving down to the Cedar Creek 25 before a Stephens interception gave the ball back to the Cougars.
The Tigers scored their lone touchdown at the 5:59 mark of the second quarter on a fumble recovery that cut Cedar Creek’s lead to 42-6.
It momentarily looked like the Tigers recovered a fumble on the ensuing kick return, but an offsides call forced a rekick.
Middleton admitted the running clock wasn’t helping the Cougars’ focus at that point.
“That’s dang near impossible because you’re talking about young kids,” Middleton said of trying to keep his team focused after jumping out to that big of a lead that fast. “They may look grown, but they’re still kids in the brain.
“Perfect example — we run out for a kick return and only have 10 guys out there. We better get things right in a hurry. The reality is, we’ve got to lock in quick with OCS coming up.”
On first down, Cedar Creek capped off scoring on the night with 1:30 remaining in the first half as Thomas ran left and raced 49-yards to the end zone.
The Tigers never managed to get any further than 35 yards away from their own end zone in the second half as the running clock made quick work of the second half.
Cedar Creek’s JV season is over, and those Cougars were the ones on the field for the majority of the final 24 minutes.
The Cougars held the Tigers to 38 yards of total offense while amassing 250 themselves. Thomas led the way for Creek with 250 yards offensively.
While Middleton admitted it was good to get his starters some rest heading into next week’s District 2-1A game against Ouachita Christian, he also realizes that still isn’t a perfect situation by any means.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” Middleton said. “We’ve played in blowouts the past four weeks. What kind of shape are we in? Mentally, when we get punched in the mouth, what’s going to happen?
“Let’s be real — it’s been several weeks since we had a challenge. I’m a realist. I hope we’re ready and prepared for it. But we still haven’t had to play four quarters for several weeks, so I don’t know how we’ll respond.”
Cedar Creek (5-2 and 2-0 in District 2-1A) will play its first road contest since Sept. 9 when the Cougars take on OCS (6-1, 2-0), which defeated River Oaks 48-0 Friday night.
“We’re running into the real deal next week, there’s no getting around that,” Coach Middleton said. “It’s just good to be 5-2 right now after starting 0-2.”
