by Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek head coach Jacob Angevine knew his team was in for a test when the Cougars rolled into Red Franklin Stadium to face top-ranked Haynesville.
And although Creek fell 62-20 in the District 1-1A match-up, the Cougars showed continued progress rolling up almost 300 yards of total offense in the loss.
“We have said it all year that our team has a lot of fight,” said Angevine. “We know that Haynesville is not only the big dog in the district, but they are one of the big dogs in the state. So for us to come out and punch them in the mouth a little bit … I don’t think they liked it very much.
“That’s just the nature of our football team. We are a gritty football team. We love to go after people. That’s just the nature of our team.”
Haynesville (7-0, 4-0) came out and established the run early, jumping out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter on TD runs by Donnie Critton and Yasin Meadors. Critton added a second rushing score early in the second quarter to extend Haynesville’s lead to 21-0.
However, the Cougars responded in fashion.
Junior quarterback Brett Bell hit senior tight end Blake Robinson on a screen pass and Robinson worked his way down the field for a 38-yard TD to close the gap to 21-6. Robinson ended the night with two catches for 57 yards and the score.
“The little screen to Blake was a great call and a great play,” said Angevine. “We knew Haynesville would be pinning their ears back and coming after us with a blitz. It was great execution by our kids. It’s one of those things we work on in practice.
“Our identity is running the football, but I don’t think we are a one dimensional team. So that pitch and catch with Blake was big for us. We threw the ball a pretty good bit tonight. We missed on a couple of plays, but Brett is getting better and better every week.”
Cedar Creek then recovered an onside kick, and on the first play from scrimmage, Bell raced 40 yards to paydirt for the Cougars second TD over a 17 second span.
“The sideline was electric (after those two touchdowns),” said Angevine. “Our kids know if we play our brand of football, we can compete with anybody. Haynesville has been in those big-time moments before and this group really has experienced that a whole lot.”
Haynesville added two more scores before the half to lead 35-12 at the break.
“The message at halftime was don’t let the moment get to big for us and to just keep hitting them in the mouth,” said Angevine.
The second half began like the game did as Haynesville scored three touchdowns in the third quarter to push it’s lead to 55-12.
Bell struck on the ground again in the fourth quarter, racing 40 yards to paydirt to cap a four-play, 62-yard drive. Freshman Payton Harris, who finished with 88 yards on 15 carries, converted the two-point conversion.
Haynesville scored on all nine of its possessions in the game, utilizing tremendous team speed throughout the contest.
“As far as trying to play against their speed, we tried our best to maintain the perimeter and to set the edge,” said Angevine. “Sometimes you have guys that are just faster than you. We saw that tonight.
“I felt like in the trenches we did a really good job. We were able to hit them in the mouth a few times, and I think our physicality matched up with theirs a pretty good bit. In the end, speed kills and they have a lot of it.”
Creek had one more opportunity to score as Harris took a handoff on the final play of the game and raced 62 yards before being tackled at the Golden Tornados 4-yard line.
Bell led the Cougars with 95 yards on nine carries with the two TDs while completing 2-of-4 passes for 57 yards.
Trigger Woodard added 33 yards on 11 carries.
Micah Taylor led Creek with six tackles while Bryce Martin and Gunner Fontenot each registered five tackles.
