By T. Scott Boatright
Tough beginnings can end up with disappointing finishes.
That was the tough lesson learned by the Cedar Creek football team Friday night.
Delhi scored all of its points in the opening minutes of both halves as the Bears held on to defeat the Cougars 16-14 at Origin Bank Stadium.
“I’m proud of how the kids played,” said Cedar Creek coach William Parkerson. “They laid their guts on the line. They played hard from the first snap until the end of the game. (Delhi) just made one more play than we did. They laid it on the line and just came up short.”
Delhi opened with a long kick return to begin its first possession at the Cedar Creek 44-yard line, and after a first down incompletion, the Bears’ Jay Wright raced around right end and rocketed all of those 44 yards for a touchdown that put Cedar Creek in a 8-0 hole only 25 seconds into the contest.
But after getting punched in the mouth to start things off, the Cougars responded by driving as deep as the Delhi four-yard line.
And Cedar Creek looked to have scored a potentially-tying touchdown when James Myers appeared trapped for a loss before somehow breaking loose and reversing direction to somehow run eight yards into the end zone.
But that play was called back due to a holding call and after a third-down sack and fourth down incompletion, the Cougars turned the ball over on downs.
Cedar Creek’s Micah Taylor stopped Delhi’s next drive with an interception inside the Creek 10. The Cougars marched the ball down inside the Bears’ 30-yard line before turning it over on downs after the chains showed that a Myers run was stopped a foot short of the first down marker, giving the ball back to the Bears at their own 25.
The Cougars’ defense came through on the next play as Hayden Durrett returned a Delhi fumble 38 yards for a touchdown with Trigger Woodard adding the two-point conversion run to tie things up at 8-8 at the 8:39 mark of the second quarter.
The score remained tied at halftime, but to start the second half the Bears again punched the Cougars in the mouth.
After being held to a three-and-out situation to start the third quarter, a bad snap resulted in Cedar Creek’s punter being tackled in the end zone for a safety that put Delhi on top 10-8 only 2:14 into the second half.
Then, adding insult to injury, the Bears’ Wright returned the ensuing kickoff for a score that pushed the Delhi lead to 16-8 at the 9:32 mark of the third quarter.
But a quarter later, the Cougars’ defense again gave their team a chance as they took advantage of a bad shotgun snap by the Bears, with Noah Martin stripping the ball after it was picked up by the Delhi quarterback.
The stripped ball rolled all the way to the end zone before Mason Wooden pounced on it for the second Cedar Creek fumble recovery for a score, cutting the Bears’ advantage to 16-14 with 11:04 remaining in the contest. Delhi would stop Cedar Creek’s attempt for a two-point conversion.
“When your defense scores two touchdowns, you’ve got to win the ballgame,” Parkerson said. “The defense played great. I was excited to see that.”
Creek held Delhi to just five first downs and 97 total yards in the ball game. The Bears were 0-7 on third downs and only 1 of 4 on fourth downs.
Myers led Creek with eight tackles while Wooden and Blake Robinson each registered six.
However, it was the inability to score offensively that was the difference.
“We just didn’t make it happen on offense even though we moved the ball,” said Parkerson. “We made it inside the 10-yard line and just couldn’t finish. We’ve got to scheme up better plays and do a better job down there when we have chances.”
The ball remained on Cedar Creek’s end of the field for most of the remainder of the game and all of the final 7:30 as Delhi escaped with the tight win to move to 1-1 on the season.
“When the field shrinks, you’ve got to execute,” Parkerson said. “We’ve got to execute better down there. We’ve got to call better plays and we’ve got to finish. The kids played as hard as they could. We’ve got to do better. We as a coaching staff have to be better. They gave us everything they’ve got.”
Wooden finished with 78 rushing yards on 13 carries while Myers added 30 yards on his seven totes.
Next up the Cougars will be a home game against Loyola Prep next Friday.
The Flyers are also 1-1 after defeating Logansport 28-6 Friday night.
Parkerson said he hopes he and his staff can learn from the loss against Delhi and keep the Cougars pushing forward.
“We’ve definitely got to grow from it … got to grow from it,” Parkerson said. “We’ve got to coach better. Gotta get them ready to play. They’re giving us what they’ve got. We’ve just got to coach better.”
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