by Malcolm Butler
It wasn’t the season finale the Cougars had in mind.
Cedar Creek committed three turnovers, eight penalties (that were accepted), and netted only 128 total yards of offense in falling 30-0 to Jonesboro Hodge Friday night at Caldwell-Peacock Stadium.
It was truly a game to forget for the green and gold.
With the loss, Cedar Creek (6-4, 4-2) will head on the road next Friday night for a first round playoff match-up after entering the game against J-Hodge with hopes of earning a home postseason game with a win.
Cougar head coach Jacob Angevine tried to shoulder the blame for the performance postgame.
“I didn’t have them ready,” said Angevine. “It’s my fault. This whole game is my fault. I just didn’t have our guys ready. Mentally, we were not ready. Physically, we were not ready.”
The game started out on a positive note when the Cougars recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff inside Tigers territory. After picking up the first of only seven first downs on the night, Creek faced a fourth and 17 from the J-Hodge 31 yard line when Dakota Knox intercepted a Brett Bell pass and returned it 71 yards for a score.
It was the first of three turnovers on the night.
The second of those came on the ensuing possession when a third down shotgun snapped was mishandled by Bell and the Tigers recovered on the Cougars 42-yard line. Six plays later, Knox found a teammate for a 14-yard TD pass and a 12-0 Tigers lead.
“They outplayed us in every facet of the game,” said Angevine. “And that’s a reflection of me. It’s on me.”
Creek entered the contest having established a run-heavy, efficient offense over the past month. Week in and week out, the Cougars were amassing over 300 yards on the ground behind the three-headed monster of Bell, Payton Harris and Trigger Woodard.
However, the Tigers solved the Creek’s rushing attack, holding the Cougars to just 70 yards on 33 attempts. One-third of the Cougars runs ended in zero or negative yards.
“Jonesboro-Hodge played great defensively up front,” said Angevine. “They were cutting us and we just couldn’t get the pitch going. It was not our brand of football tonight. The past couple of weeks, we have played a real physical brand of football. That team was not us tonight.”
Trailing 18-0 late in the first half, the Cougars mounted their best drive of the night. With 12 seconds to play in the half, Bell found a wide open teammate in the back of the endzone, but the would-be TD was dropped. With only six seconds remaining and no timeouts left, the Cougars tried to run Bell but he was tackled on the three-yard line as the clock ran out.
Jonesboro Hodge (7-3, 5-1) added a pair of TDs in the second half to push the lead out to the final.
Creek will now wait to find out who they will play in the opening round of the Select School Division IV playoffs, and Angevine said a different Cougars team would play in that postseason game.
“I can promise you this, we will be ready,” said Angevine. “The team that showed up tonight will not show back up. We will be ready for next week no matter where we have to travel. We will be ready.”
