By T. Scott Boatright
The Golden Tornado stormed onto the field from the start and quickly took control Friday night as Haynesville roared to a 52-8 win over Cedar Creek in District 1-1A action on Cougars Field at Origin Bank Stadium.
But that didn’t mean Cedar Creek (1-5 overall and 1-1 in district play) went down without much of a fight — the Cougars scratched and clawed at Haynesville (6-0 and 3-0 in District 1-1A) from start to finish.
“Haynesville is a really good football team,” said Cedar Creek coach William Parkerson. “They’re an older team that’s super athletic and we just didn’t adjust to their speed at first. As the game went on, we adjusted and played much better.”
It took the Golden Tornado only 1:39 to strike paydirt and put the game’s first touchdown on the scoreboard as Donnie Critton broke free for a 59-run on the initial play of the contest before dancing into the end zone three plays later from one-yard out to put Haynesville up 7-0.
Then Haynesville held the Cougars to a three-and-out possession before trying to punt the ball on fourth and nine from their own 24-yard line.
But the punt snap sailed over the Cedar Creek punter’s head and was pounced on by Haynesville’s Dakota Davis in the endzone to push the Golden Tornado’s advantage to 14-0 at the 7:38 mark of the opening stanza.
Haynesville increased its lead to 21-0 with 53 seconds remaining in the first quarter before returning a punt 40 yards for another to put the Cougars down 28-0 only four seconds into the second quarter.
The Golden Tornado added another touchdown with 7:22 remaining in the first half 17-yard scoring pass from quarterback Isiah Washington to Kaylen Payton before Zykerius Fielding added a 56-yard scoring scamper with four minutes left in the second quarter to send the Cougars into the locker room trailing 42-0 at halftime.
“I wish we would have come out and played from the start like we did in the second half,” Parkerson said. “We played with more energy and more physicality in the second half. That was my challenge to the team at halftime; to come out and compete and they did that. But we’ve got to be ready to go from the opening kickoff on and tonight we weren’t.”
After holding the Cougars to a three-and-out possession to begin the second half, the Golden Tornado quickly struck again on a 60-yard touchdown run by Jayden Green to up their lead to 49-0 at the 5:46 mark of the third quarter.
Haynesville added a 31-yard field goal with 9:50 left in the contest, but the Cougars never backed down and continued playing with full intensity.
“I know this about our kids — regardless of the score, they’re going to compete,” Parkerson said. “We’ve got to grow up and get our guys to play older than they are, and that’s a tough ask. No excuses — we’ve got to be better.”
That fight shown by the Cougars prevented Haynesville from earning its third shutout of the season.
Cedar Creek countered that Haynesville field goal by marching 79 yards on six plays, with Trigger Woodard rushing for 26 yards on four carries before James Myers raced 47 yards down the left sideline to paydirt. Mason Wooden added a two-point conversion run for the game’s final score with 3:35 left on the clock.
“No doubt that was big,” Parkerson said of the Cougars’ lone score. “We came out to try to win the second half. We competed until the final whistle. Putting a good drive together like that was nice. (Cougars quarterback) Cason (Floyd) made some really good reads on that last drive. Trigger was running the ball really hard. And then James was able to pop that touchdown (run).”
Woodard led the Cougars with 47 yards on nine carries while Myers also rushed nine times for the Cougars, adding another 42 yards on the ground.
Defensively, Cedar Creek was led by Myers, Woodard and Blake Robinson with four tackles each.
The Cougars return to the road next week as Cedar Creek travels a few miles west to play at Lincoln Preparatory School (4-3 overall, 2-2 in District 1-1A) in a game set for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Thursday at Panthers Field.
