By Malcolm Butler
Payton Harris and Brett Bell combined to rush for 302 yards and five touchdowns as the ninth-seeded Cougars rolled to a 42-8 victory over No. 24 seed Lincoln Prep Friday night at Origin Bank Stadium in the opening round of the Division IV Select School playoffs.
One week after defeating their Lincoln Parish neighbors in the regular-season finale, the Cougars (10-1) earned their first postseason victory in years and will travel to Baton Rouge next Friday to face undefeated and eighth-seeded Southern Lab in the second round.
Head coach Jacob Angevine said Friday night’s victory was another step in the resurgence of the Cedar Creek football program.
“I told these seniors, ‘It takes one class, one class to change the narrative of a program,’” Angevine said. “And I think last year we did a good job getting back to the playoffs and setting the expectation to be in the postseason. But now it’s time to go on a run.
“We don’t want to be satisfied with one win. We want to be satisfied with getting on a run and seeing how far we can take this thing. We’ve got a great team. We’ve got a great staff. We’ve got a great community. Everybody’s bought into this. And so we need to ride this train as long as we can.”
After getting off to a slow start in last week’s win over the Panthers, Cedar Creek wasted little time taking control of Friday night’s contest.
The Cougars marched 60 yards on six plays on their opening possession, highlighted by a 40-yard run by Harris. Bell capped the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Cohen Pottharst on fourth down, and Campbell Woodard added the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 7:24 to play in the first quarter.
Just 15 seconds later, the Cougars were in the end zone again.
Lincoln Prep fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Bell made the Panthers pay with a 39-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. A bad snap on the extra point left Creek with a 13-0 lead.
“Last week, we started slow and we didn’t get anything going in the first quarter,” Angevine said. “I told the guys on Monday, ‘Find energy in the most minuscule things that you can do so that translates to Friday night.’ And I think we came out, we jumped on them early, and we didn’t take our foot off the gas. I’m proud of them.”
Cedar Creek’s offensive line took over in the second quarter.
The Cougars marched 70 yards on 11 consecutive running plays, eight of them carries by Harris, who capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Noah Smith ran in the two-point conversion for a 21-0 lead with 5:21 to play in the half.
Lincoln Prep fumbled the ensuing kickoff for the second time in the game, and five plays later, Harris scored from 6 yards out. Woodard’s extra point gave the Cougars a 28-0 advantage heading into the locker room.
“The offensive line, they took care of business last week, and we put the game in their hands,” Angevine said. “We’ve been telling them all year, we’re going to win and lose football games based off their performance. They did a great job.”
Harris finished the night with 158 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries, while Bell totaled 144 yards and two scores on just nine carries in addition to his touchdown pass.
“I think Lincoln Prep did a really good job of keying in on Payton,” Angevine said. “Payton had a tremendous game of running straight through people’s faces. Brett had a big game as well, being able to break loose and scoring some big-time runs.”
Bell’s 55-yard run in the third quarter highlighted a three-play, 69-yard drive that culminated in Harris’ third touchdown, an 8-yard run that extended the lead to 35-0. The Cougars put together one final scoring drive in the fourth quarter, covering 76 yards on 11 consecutive running plays. Bell capped it with a 19-yard touchdown run with 8:11 remaining, and Woodard’s extra point made it 42-0, triggering a running clock.
Lincoln Prep (3-8) avoided the shutout when Howard Kirkpatrick Jr. scored on a 3-yard run with 4:40 remaining. Kirkpatrick highlighted the three-play, 59-yard drive with a 45-yard run and added the two-point conversion to account for the final margin.
The Cougars defense and special teams forced four turnovers while recording five sacks in the contest. Hayden Durrett totaled eight tackles and two sacks, while Noah Smith had six tackles, one sack and one fumble recovery. Trigger Woodard also recorded a sack while Micah Taylor and Cooper Lee had fumble recoveries.
Lincoln Prep managed just 227 total yards of offense, including 177 on the ground with much of that coming in the second half on the legs of Kirkpatrick, who finished with eight carries for 85 yards and the one score.
Randall Traylor totaled 12 tackles for the Panthers.
Now the Cougars turn their attention to Southern Lab and an opportunity to continue their postseason run.
“We can celebrate this one, but we aren’t done yet,” Angevine said. “We know we’ve got a big one next week we’ve got to prepare for.”
