Note: I didn't attend this game either, so everything will be from the box score. As much as I enjoy watching the Wildcats play... family first. I hope you understand.
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in October at Pridgeon, the Wildcats got themselves a crucial victory as they knocked off Cy-Fair 38-31 in overtime. With the win, they have a playoff spot all to themselves. They haven't formally punched their ticket to the playoffs just yet, but they're definitely in prime position.
For the first time since 2010, the Cypress Woods Wildcats had more points at the end of a football game than the Cy-Fair Bobcats. It's been a long time coming. This was Wildcats' 2nd overtime game in team history; I don't think you'll need much help remembering the first one.
The Wildcats won despite allowing 223 yards and 3 touchdowns to the district's leading rusher, Jacorey Aleem, committing 11 penalties and turning the ball over 6 times (3 interceptions, 3 fumbles lost). Sheesh. Penalties have been a significant problem for Woods all season, and, including this game, they've committed 9 turnovers in their last 2 contests. Somehow, they emerged from this game with a monumental victory. You know that old saying about how a good team is able to overcome their mistakes....
So, What Happened Was...
48 minutes was apparently not enough time for the outcome this game to be determined. No matter.
Well, the Wildcats had a rather inauspicious start to their afternoon as Aleem led off the game by slicing his way to the endzone from 36 yards out, and then after Nick Hooper was strip-sacked to end Woods' first possesion of the day, the Bobcats added a field goal, and before you knew it, the Wildcats were down 10-0. On the ensuing Woods drive, though, Nick atoned for that earlier mistake by punching it in from 10 yards out to put the Wildcats on the board for the first time.
End 1st: Fair 10, Woods 7
In the 2nd, Aleem struck again from 15 yards. Nick's 3 interceptions all came in the 2nd quarter.
Halftime: Fair 17, Woods 7
Cy Woods came out of the locker room guns blazing as they scored on their first 2 possessions of the 2nd half to take a 21-17 lead. Nick scored his 2nd rushing touchdown of the day from 17 yards out, and he found R.J. Harmon for a 31-yard TD reception. However, Jacorey Aleem would have the last word in the 3rd quarter with his 3rd touchdown run of the day. This one came from 5 yards out and gave Cy-Fair a 24-21 lead heading into the final 12 minutes of regulation.
End 3rd: Fair 24, Woods 21
Elijah Pierson kicked off the 4th quarter with an interception, and then on a reverse pass, Zac Duncan found Nick Hooper for a 6-yard touchdown pass to give the Wildcats the lead once more. All of a sudden, the game took a turn for the worse as R.J. Harmon coughed up the ball and Justin Burrell recovered the loose ball and scored for the Bobcats, giving them a 31-28 lead with 2:25 to go. The Wildcats suddenly had to mount up a response. They were able to move the ball, racking up 3 first downs in the process. However, Nick was dropped for a loss of 4 yards, which forced a 3rd and long, but a facemask penalty against Fair on the play breathed new life into the Wildcats' final drive and put them at the Bobcats' 20. However, nothing doing for them over for the next 3 plays, so... enter Luis Reyes. The sophomore came on to attempt the biggest kick of his young career.... and he nailed a 37-yard field goal with 5 seconds left in regulation.
End of Regulation: Woods 31, Fair 31
The Bobcats won the overtime coin toss, but they let the Wildcats have the ball first. 9 plays later, Nick Hooper punched in his 3rd rushing touchdown of the day from 6 yards out, topping that off by steamrolling Burrell to get in the endzone. Now... it was the defense's turn. 2 Aleem runs put the Bobcats in a 3rd and 6 situation from the Woods 21. Clayton Kopecky dropped back to pass, but Bryson Powers closed out the biggest Wildcat win of the season with his 2nd interception of the campaign.
Final in OT: Woods 38, Fair 31
Turning Points
1. With approximately 4 minutes to go in regulation, Nick Hooper appeared to have a 51-yard touchdown run... only to have that wiped out by a holding call. Because I was not at the game, I cannot speak as to how dubious that penalty was. That run would have given the Wildcats a 2-score lead, and overtime most likely would not have been needed.
2. Two plays later, R.J. Harmon fumbled the ball, and Cy-Fair's Justin Burrell returned the fumble for a touchdown, giving the Bobcats a 31-28 lead.
3. The Bobcats gave the Wildcats the ball to open up overtime. Well, their defense had been so good all season, but it's a double-edged sword when the offense that gets the ball is so explosive.
Ground
Of the 925 yards of offense amassed in the game, 596 of them were on the ground. 301 of those 596 rushing yards belonged to Cy Woods: Nick Hooper and Jacorey Aleem scored 3 touchdowns apiece for their respective teams. C.J. Jones recorded his 3rd 100-yard rushing game of the year, leading the team with 107 yards. R.J. Harmon chipped in with 98 on 14 carries, and Nick got 93 on 28 carries and scored 3 times; his 3rd turned out to be the difference.
Vine by Brian Sutton:
All statistics per TSRN.
C.J. Jones: 18 carries, 107 yards
R.J. Harmon: 14 carries, 98 yards
Nick Hooper: 28 carries, 93 yards, 3 TD
Zac Duncan: 1 carry, 7 yards
Air
Nick had a rough go of it, but then again, opposing QBs have been flayed alive by this Cy-Fair secondary. He threw 3 picks; 2 to Josh Curtis and 1 to Brandon Richmond. However, he found R.J. for a 31-yard TD in the 3rd. Zac Duncan is now 2-2 on the season with 2 touchdown passes. Efficient.
Nick Hooper: 15-26, 254 yards, TD, 3 INT
Zac Duncan: 1-1, 6 yards, TD
Tre' Hart, who transferred to Cy Woods from Louisiana last year, has emerged as a top target out wide in this offense. Nick has caught 2 passes this year, and both have been for touchdowns. Efficient.
Tre' Hart: 5 recs, 87 yards
Zac Duncan: 3 recs, 50 yards
Jordan Johnson: 2 recs, 43 yards
C.J. Jones: 2 recs, 0 yards
Chad O'Donnell: 1 rec, 34 yards
R.J. Harmon: 1 rec, 31 yards, TD
Taylor Tesch: 1 rec, 9 yards
Nick Hooper: 1 rec, 6 yards, TD
Defense
Danny Malone, special teams ace, recorded a big sack early in the 2nd quarter, which forced a Cy-Fair punt. The Wildcat secondary matched the Bobcats as they picked off Clayton Kopecky 3 times. The third one, by Bryson Powers, finished off the victory.
Sacks: Danny Malone 1 (8 yards lost)
Interceptions: Michael Wirt 1, Elijah Pierson 1, Bryson Powers 1; all of them now have 2 interceptions on the season.
Special Teams
Jordan Johnson punted once for 42 yards. Luis Reyes hit all 5 of his extra points, and he sent the game to overtime with his 37-yard field goal.
Johnson returned the 2nd half opening kickoff 31 yards, and Bryson Powers lost 10 yards on a punt return.
Other Notes
Normally when someone commits 4 turnovers, their confidence is supposedly so shot that they find themselves on the bench. Nick, though, showed tremendous character and poise in rebounding from those blunders. And eventually, he rallied his team to a huge win.
This is the 2nd time this season that the Wildcats have won a game despite committing 10+ penalties and turning the ball over at least 5 times.
Men of the Match
As much as I want to knock his grade down a notch with all the turnovers, it's got to be Nick Hooper. Because... despite the turnovers, he was never rattled, and he did not allow those mistakes to snowball into a total disaster. And eventually, when he got the opportunity to lead his team to a win, that's exactly what he did.
Coming into this season, Nick was expected to be a leader for this team, and he's more than delivered on that.
Another Man of the Match goes to Bryson Powers for the pick. And one more for Luis Reyes, who's been quite the find at kicker this season. Game hanging in the balance? Not a problem for him.
Honorable mentions go out to R.J. Harmon and C.J. Jones for their big days on the ground, Danny Malone for his sack early in the game, and Michael Wirt and Elijah Pierson for getting their 2nd picks of the year.
Looking Ahead
On Halloween, the Wildcats will be at Pridgeon for the final time this season as they host the Jersey Village Falcons. Kickoff is at 7:00.
Have to give a huge shout out to Harmon for bouncing back after a huge error; Hooper's and his determination to win was key in moving the ball into scoring position for the young kicker. I believe Harmon had 2 key first downs in that drive.
ReplyDeleteDustin, hope your family is doing well. Sorry you missed the game. A couple of things FYI..
ReplyDeleteReferee's tried to give this game to to CyFair. CyFairs 1st touchdown run was actually not a TD. His knee was down. Film proves it. That's why our players stopped. So, he easily ran into the endzone. Referees are terrible!
Then, CyFair flubbed catching a kickoff in their endzone, fumbling it to the 1 yard line, picked it up and took a knee back into the end zone. Safety Right? No. The referees called a touchback. That was huge. They went on to score on that drive.
Also, one of Hooper's interceptions was a timing route to Zac Duncan on a post. Duncan was almost tackled coming off his break and was screaming at the referees. So, it looked like Hooper was throwing to no one. But, no call, and the result was a interception. How many times have the referees done this to us this year?
Our defensive ends and linebackers were getting held all afternoon. No wonder Jacory gets outside so easily. This is a no brainer call, but obviously that's the problem.
You already talked about the mysterious holding call on Hooper's TD run down the sideline. Again, we are getting shafted this year and someone needs to call the referees out on it at some point. Just too many one-sided calls. This is ridiculous. Film does not lie.
Nothing dubious about the holding call - take a look: http://bit.ly/1obQp8x.
DeleteHere is a closer look; http://bit.ly/1A6APAo showing both hands of #75 pulling at the jersey of the defender - the left hand is pulling the neckline down, actually exposing some shoulder pad, and the right hand is pulling enough jersey to contort the "Cy Fair" lettering. All at the very moment the ball carrier was sprinting by. At least they got this one right.
Don't forget the defense! Our "last place in the district" defense held CyFair's ground game to minimal yardage. Their passing game was non-existent. Guess that "old school" offense isn't ALL THAT against Coach Faith's defense!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that Cy-Fair's ground game was held to "minimal" yardage. Their running game got their usual amount of yards, but I felt that whenever they looked to pull out a passing play, the Woods defense was well-prepared for that wrinkle. They made sure that the Cy-Fair offense remained one-dimensional, and they came up huge in the late stages of the game.
DeleteHey, how many people noticed what happened in the trenches? Starting left tackle TJ Frank turned his ankle on the first play of the game - Coach Turnbow called on the smallest linemen in the depth chart - Brandon Kula - tipping the scales at, maybe, 180lbs! Take a look at him next to 290lb LG Ty Dendy: http://bit.ly/1tAFiqv Brandon played an outstanding game - earning the starting position against Jersey Village as well. That's one GUTSY performance!
ReplyDeleteBrandon, Ty, and the entire line won the battles in the trenches - yet again. Cy Woods averages over 500 yds per game - with big contributions from the horses up front.