Klein Collins 42, Cy Woods 14: Stumbling Out of the Gate

2014 Record: 0-1

New tunnel. New uniforms. New everything. This new era of Cy Woods football is in full swing.

Well... Chapter 7 of Cy Woods Football didn't exactly start off the way everyone expected. The Cats fell behind 21-0 at halftime and trailed by as much as 35-0 before they sprang to life. It was all Tigers in this game as they literally pounded the Cats into the ground to the tune of 429 rushing yards. And, as a result, Cy Woods was condemned to a 42-14 defeat on Opening Night.

Yes, the Cats got smacked in their first game of the season. But, there's at least 9 games remaining in this season. People who are panicking over this game are completely missing the big picture. That's really all I can say to the sky-is-falling crowd.

There was a lot of hype surrounding this game from the team and the community, and they got hit in the mouth. I think this game opened their eyes a bit. This game showed that they still have a ways to go before they reach the level that they expect to play at this season. They'll be fine, though. The Wildcats have bounced back from worse losses before, trust me.

Yes, the Cats got smacked, but that doesn't mean that this game was devoid of any encouraging signs. Bryson Powers (#88), a sophomore, finished with 2 catches for 45 yards and returned 4 kickoffs for 58 yards. He's new to the program. His father is one of the new assistant coaches this season; Coach Powers is handling the inside linebackers. Bryson showed a nice burst after his first catch and eventually gained 38 yards on the play. He also got the majority of the kick returning duties as Klein Collins decided to kick away from Zac Duncan and C.J. Jones. He'll be one to watch not just for this season, but in the coming years, as well.

Turning Point

Woods was driving in the 1st quarter, but that was derailed after a botched snap on the Klein Collins 22-yard-line, and then Nick Hooper coughed it up as he attempted to salvage something from that play. The Tigers eventually scored on their ensuing drive.

You could also say that the first 30 minutes of this game was one giant turning point, as the Tigers built up a 35-0 lead before the Cats could answer.

Ground

Both Cats TDs were scored via the running game. Zac Duncan scored the first points of the season when he took a reverse and ran 26 yards for a touchdown in the 3rd. Later in that 3rd quarter, R.J. Harmon scored from 7 yards out.

Zac Duncan: 1 carry, 26 yards, TD
R.J. Harmon: 5 carries, 18 yards, TD
Nick Hooper: 15 carries, 51 yards
C.J. Jones: 3 carries, 10 yards

Air

There wasn't much to report from the passing game. The longest pass play of the evening belonged to Bryson Powers, who caught a 38-yard pass on Woods' 3rd possession, in the 2nd quarter. Other than that, though, the next-longest completion was a 17-yard catch from Jared Taylor in the 3rd. R.J. Harmon led the Cats with 6 receptions. Nick was relieved for a series by Reece Clark, who was at the helm for Woods' first scoring drive.

Nick Hooper: 16-23, 121 yards
Reece Clark: 4-6, 31 yards

R.J. Harmon: 6 recs, 54 yards
Zac Duncan: 5 recs, 36 yards
Bryson Powers: 2 recs, 45 yards
Jared Taylor: 2 recs, 21 yards
Jordan Johnson: 2 recs, 9 yards
Taylor Tesch: 2 recs, 8 yards
C.J. Jones: 1 rec, 4 yards
Tre Hart: 1 rec, 2 yards
Mikey Roberts: 1 rec, 0 yards

*Wait, why do the Wildcats have 179 receiving yards, but only 152 passing yards? Well, part of this is because I am the rare Asian who isn't very good at math. Also, there is no exact science to keeping track of statistics at the high school level. Some media outlets, like the Chronicle, say that Cy Woods had 162 passing yards. The numbers will vary, depending on which media outlet you are consulting for your stats, like TSRN, Varsity Wires, or Adam Coleman. These are the numbers that I have compiled. Some of these catches may have actually been backwards passes that should've counted towards the team's rushing statistics, but were counted as receptions, and thus, were counted towards the team's passing statistics.

Defense

Allowing the opposing team to score touchdowns on their first 5 possessions is definitely not ideal. That's all I'll say here. They recovered a fumble in the 2nd, but that was wiped out by a dubious, at best, offsides call. And then Klein Collins eventually scored.

In some kind of sick irony, the Cats allowed 212 yards in the 1st half.

Kason Franklin (#34), a sophomore making his debut in the show, had 7 tackles (4 assisted) and recovered an onside kick. Elijah Pierson (#42) led the way with 8 total tackles, 5 of which were solo efforts. The Outlaw Shane Lawless, also had 8 tackles, only 1 of which was assisted.

Tackles: Elijah Pierson 8 (3 assisted), Shane Lawless 8 (1 assisted), Kason Franklin 7 (4 assisted), Wade Carson 6 (1 assisted), Michael Wirt 5, Tyler Greaves 5 (2 assisted), Jake Jones 4, Matt Swalm 4 (3 assisted), Morgan Tosten 4 (all assisted), Keith Watson 3 (2 assisted), Justyn Johnson 2 (both assisted), Danny Malone 2 (1 assisted), Elijah Kinnison 1, Brandon DePrato 1 (assisted), Randall Medlin 1 (assisted), Justin Lawson 1 (assisted)

Interceptions: None.

Fumbles forced/recovered: None.

*Interceptions and fumbles won't be overly tough to track, but tackles is definitely going to be a different story. If there's a pile at the line of scrimmage and there's about 7 players around the ball carrier, then that's a lot of assisted tackles to dish out. So, therefore, I'll award assists to the first 3 players that get to the ball carrier. My bad if that hurts your numbers, but your numbers better contribute to a Wildcat win. Also,it's a little tough to compile stats with a notebook. 

Special Teams

Jordan Johnson punted 3 times for 124 yards, giving him a 41.3-yard average. So, a good night for him in that aspect of the game, but I think he'd much rather have a better night on offense.

I've never seen a team execute 2 onside kicks for 2 straight kickoffs.... until last night. #85 (no nameplate on back) did a great job, because the Cats ended up recovering both of them. The Outlaw Shane Lawless recovered the kick that followed Zac Duncan's TD run, and on the ensuing Wildcat possession, R.J. Harmon scored. The next onside looked like it was going to be recovered by the Tigers, but one mishandle and a scrum later resulted in Kason Franklin emerging with the ball for the Cats.

Zac Duncan returned 2 kicks for 47 yards, while Bryson Powers returned 4 for 58 yards. These numbers are guesstimates, but I'm fairly confident those numbers are correct. Zac also muffed a fair catch after Collins' first punt of the game, which occured with less than a minute to go in the game.

Looking Ahead

After a week off, the Wildcats will kick off district play as they take on Cy Ridge on Saturday, September 13 at 6:00 at the Berry Center. They'll look to win a district opener for the first time ever. This will be the first of 3 consecutive Saturday games for the Wildcats.