State Bound!

The Cypress Woods Wildcats are heading to state! They're heading to the 2018 Texas State 7-on-7 Football Tournament, that is.

Congrats to the Cy Woods 7v7 football team for qualifying for state! ⁦@CyWoodsFB212⁩ #212 pic.twitter.com/qZLFWohs8C

— CyWoodsBooster (@CyWood_Boosters) June 9, 2018

The state tournament will begin on June 29 at Veterans Park in College Station. Cy Woods clinched their berth by winning four games in the Cypress State Qualifying Tournament which took place Friday evening at Cy Creek and Jersey Village. They had previously attempted to qualify at the Richmond State Qualifying Tournament last month but failed to advance out of pool play on that occasion. The Cats last appeared at the state tournament in 2014, which also happens to be the last time they made the playoffs in 11-on-11 football. You know, the variation that's played in pads...

Cy Woods won all three of their games in pool play on Friday, topping Memorial 33-20 in the opener. A long weather delay followed, but they got back to it by dominating Katy Paetow 47-0. They had to go to overtime in their final game as they got away from what was working for them on offense in the second half and Willowridge's comeback was aided by a few, um... questionable calls, but they pulled themselves together and held off the Eagles by a final score of 33-32 to advance to the semi-finals. Willowridge got the ball to start overtime and scored but failed to convert their point-after try. The Wildcats responded with a score and successfully converted their point-after try, and that ended up being the difference.

The Cats were matched up with Terry High School out of Lamar Consolidated in the semi-final. A tight first half saw Woods emerge with a 14-6 lead. A hearty diet of Jake Tesch effectively carried the Cats to the finish line. Cameron Sowell got the ball coming out of a crossing pattern and left everyone in the dust in the second half, and the defense bent a bit, but held firm and got the stops they needed, and as a result, Cy Woods capped off a successful evening with a 33-19 victory to send them to College Station.

Chase Richter was the defensive standout as he recorded five interceptions across the four games and returned one of them for a touchdown against Paetow. Chase had his baseball commitments to fulfill during the spring so he didn't spend much time with football, but I came away extremely impressed by his ball skills out of the safety spot. He'll definitely be a player to watch this upcoming season.

Jake was also helping the Wildcat baseball team in their playoff run, but he was virtually unguardable out of the slot and Jackson Jones just kept exploiting the matchup, especially as the night wore on. Just get him through the summer and he's going to be a huge difference-maker on offense.

Location of Veterans Park, College Station

Get there early. Also, this is a massive complex so you may have to walk a fair amount to get to where the Cats will be playing on Friday.

From Highway 6, take the exit to Highway 30/Harvey Road and turn right. If you somehow missed that exit, you can also take the exit to University and turn right from there. The park will be on the left if you're coming in from Harvey or on the right if you're on University.