by Tim Smith
Cedar Creek kicker Campbell Woodard drilled a 20-yard field goal with one tick left on the clock to seal a 16-13 victory over the D’Arbonne Woods Timberwolves in the third act of Friday’s jamboree at Cedar Creek’s Origin Bank Stadium.
Cougar head coach Jacob Angevine was elated with the victory.
“That’s Weapon X,” Angevine said with a smile, referring to Woodard. “We were counting on him last year as a freshman to be our kicker, but he got injured in a JV game and his season got derailed.
“We practice setting up the game-winning field goal, and we went through it twice yesterday and he missed both attempts. But he came to me and said, ‘Coach, I will make the next one.’”
The Cougars were offensive-minded from the start against D’Arbonne Woods, winning the toss and electing to receive. Good kick coverage by the T-Wolves left senior quarterback Brett Bell and the Cougars starting from their own 11.
Bell faked a handoff to Liam Durrett and kept the ball himself, slashing his way to the 25 for a 14-yard gain. On third-and-4 from the 31, Bell kept again and escaped for 26 yards down the home sideline. Two plays later, Bell exploded around the right side of the T-Wolves defense and took it 35 yards to the end zone. Woodard added the point after.
The Cougar defense held the Timberwolves on their first possession, forcing a punt. Cedar Creek’s Payton Harris muffed the punt, giving D’Arbonne Woods great field position at the Cougar 16-yard line. The Timberwolves needed just three plays to score, tying the game at 7-7.
After receiving a short kickoff, the Cougars took over at their own 45. Cedar Creek sophomore Payton Harris ripped off a run for 15 yards on the first play of the series. On the next play, Bell gave it to Harris again, who bounced off multiple defenders and squirted free for a 40-yard TD. The point after failed, but the Cougars led 13-7.
On the Timberwolves’ first play of the next series, Case Phillips appeared to have an interception and a return run inside the 10-yard line. The play was overturned on a pass interference penalty, erasing the interception. The Timberwolves mounted a sustained drive capped off by a 19-yard touchdown pass. The T-Wolves mishandled the extra-point attempt, leaving the game tied at 13 with just over a minute left on the clock.
After a short kick, the Cougars began their drive at their own 39. Bell took the snap and tucked the ball securely in the hands of Payton Harris, whom Angevine refers to as “lightning in a bottle.” Before we could hear the thunder, Harris had slipped through the light-blinded defense and ripped off 33 yards, going out of bounds at the D’Arbonne 28-yard line. Harris got the pigskin again on the next play and was tackled at the 20. With the clock ticking down and only one timeout left, Bell handed the ball to Liam Durrett, who muscled his way to the 8-yard line as Angevine scrambled down the sideline to call timeout.
With one second on the clock, the Cougars sent out kicker Campbell Woodard to attempt the 25-yard field goal to win the game. The Timberwolves jumped offside just as the ball was snapped, and the penalty moved the ball to the 3, the exact place from which an extra point is attempted. Woodard showed no sign of nerves as he methodically punched it perfectly through the middle of the uprights for the win.
“I got full belief in that kid,” Angevine said of Woodard.
Angevine talked a little about his playmakers in Bell and Harris.
“He’s special,” Angevine said, referring to Bell. “I kinda like him being greedy and taking the ball. He knows he can pitch it, or get the yards himself. It’s OK, he just wants to win.
“(Payton) was upset with himself about missing that punt, but he went out and made up for it.”
Harris made up for it in a very big way.
“Ripping off a couple of very big runs there at the end,” Angevine said. “He was our guy last year, and he is our guy this year. He had something to prove, and he did it.”
The night began with the Cougars facing the Spartans of Class 2A Caldwell Parish High in what would be the first of three 15-minute contests. The Cougars started slow … again, much to the chagrin of head coach Jacob Angevine, who has noted that his young team has struggled in the early minutes of games, going all the way back to last season.
The offense could not quite find a way to break free from a big and tough Spartan defense. The Cougar defense, on the other hand, held the Spartans to a single, hard-fought touchdown, dropping the game 7-0.
When the Cougars took to the field again in the final stanza against their Union Parish neighbors, they didn’t look like the same team that played only minutes before.
Caldwell also defeated D’Arbonne Woods 7-0 in the second game, setting the stage for the final battle.
