by Malcolm Butler
Jacob Angevine was not in a good mood last Friday night.
Less than midway through the first quarter, he found his Cedar Creek team trailing 14-0 against Rayville.
He hopes it was a learning lesson.
Cedar Creek rallied for a 26-14 win over the Hornets and will put its undefeated record on the line tonight when the Cougars travel to Class 3A North Webster. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
The Cougars enter the contest 4-0 and ranked No. 10 in this week’s Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 1A poll.
But it was the way Cedar Creek earned its fourth win — or at least the way they started — that Angevine hopes pays dividends as the Cougars move closer to district play.
“I think we needed a win like that,” Angevine said. “All the other wins we’ve had, we may have had a mess-up once or twice early in the game, but going down 14 points like that to a bigger classification school like Rayville, who’s got athletes everywhere and some really good linemen up front, we dug ourselves into a hole.
“I think it really tested the mental strength of our team.”
Angevine wasn’t pleased with the Cougars’ energy before the game and warned his players in the locker room that it could lead to problems. He was right.
“I told them before we even kicked off, ‘Guys, we’ve had a really great week of practice, but that pregame was the flattest I’ve seen us all year,'” Angevine said. “I said, ‘If we don’t find some energy quick in this room, it’s going to go wrong for us early on.’ And sure enough, it did.”
But instead of allowing the early deficit to snowball, Cedar Creek responded.
“Being able to dig down deep and find a way to win is something we have not had to do yet this year, but I’m glad we see it early,” Angevine said.
The Cougars have two more opportunities to prepare themselves for district play, beginning with Friday night’s trip to North Webster and followed by next week’s game against North Caddo.
North Webster enters tonight’s game with a 1-3 record, although the Knights are coming off their best performance of the season with a 42-0 victory over Lakeview.
The Cougars and Knights have one common opponent this year in St. Frederick. Cedar Creek defeated St. Frederick 32-10, while North Webster fell to the Warriors 21-14.
Angevine expects the Knights to provide another physical challenge for his team.
“They do a bunch of different things,” Angevine said of the North Webster offense. “I think they want to try to run the football and make that their identity. They do have some skill guys on the outside. They are bigger than us, but I think we’ve seen some battles early on that’s gotten us ready for these bigger linemen.”
North Webster’s defense has also caught Angevine’s attention.
The Knights base out of a 3-3 look and possess both size and speed in their front six.
“They are fast, especially those three front guys,” Angevine said. “Those three linebackers, they’re pretty solid all around up front. I think they have a nose tackle that probably weighs about 350, and he moves like a 200-pound linebacker.
“He’s quick off the ball. He’s strong as all get out, and the middle linebacker right behind him, he plugs every gap. He’s an absolute dude. So we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Cedar Creek are relatively healthy although they will be without Eddie Henry, who reaggravated a knee injury in last week’s win. Angevine said imaging showed no additional damage, but the Cougars will be cautious with Henry in hopes of having him healthy when district play begins.
For Angevine, the opportunity to face another larger-classification opponent on the road is one more test that could benefit his team when the games begin counting in the district standings.
“Especially against higher classification schools, when we do play people that are similar to our roster size, similar to our roster makeup, we’ll be ready for those situations,” Angevine said. “I’m really glad that we did get to see it early.”
