By Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek puts its modest three-game winning streak on the line tonight when the Cougars open district action by hosting River Oaks.
Kickoff from Cougar Stadium is 7 p.m.
After starting the season by dropping a pair of heartbreakers to Glenbrook and Vidalia, Matt Middleton and Co. have rebounded nicely by defeating Winnfield, Delhi and Tensas by a combined score of 143-26.
Not only do the Cougars stand at 3-2 on the season entering tonight, but they are ranked 14th in the Select Division IV power rankings; the system used to determine playoff seeding at the end of the year.
The past two weeks have seen Middleton empty the bench at halftime in blowout wins. Although he knows it wasn’t much of a test, the Cougar sideline sergeant did find some positives in addition to a W.
“Playing everybody. I think that was the biggest positive,” said Middleton. “In front of a homecoming crowd, I was able to play everybody on the roster. They got a bunch of reps so that was a positive. It was a win. It was a big mismatch but the positive was all the kids got to play. Anytime they get a chance to play it’s good. They all work hard.”
However, Middleton is concerned about the lack of extended playing time for his starters the last two weeks.
“I expect a four-quarter game (tonight),” said Middleton. “That’s the biggest thing for me. I don’t feel like it’s going to be lopsided like these last two. We have to go back out and play. It’s a little bit concerning for me. We struggled with being in shape early in the year. Now the last two weeks we haven’t played full games with our starters. I’m a little nervous on how we will do stamina-wise as far as having to go play four quarters.”
River Oaks comes into the contest with a 2-3 mark, coming off a 42-25 loss to D’Arbonne Woods Charter last week. The Mustangs have recorded wins over Beekman Charter (29-18) in Week 1 and Sicily Island (40-0) in Week No. 4. The other two losses came to Delta Charter (16-6) and Delhi Charter (44-8).
“They’re going to run the option,” said Middleton. “The flexbone. Bottom line they are going to try to eat up the clock And they’re going to try to hold onto the ball as much as they can. That’s what they do. They limit possessions. So we need to score when we touch it.
“Defensively, they will give us multiple fronts. They will probably be geeked up. It’s the first district game. I know we are. We are looking forward to it.”
