Ten Years, Ten Best Games - #8: Cy Creek, 2009

A 2009 District 15-5A thriller checks in at #8 on the ten best games of the first decade of Cy Woods football.

October 9, 2009: Cy Woods 21, Cy Creek 20

Entering 2009, we knew that the road to a district title ran through Cy Creek. The year before, the Cougars completed a season to remember as they went from worst to first and advanced to the third round of the playoffs. They also beat us down that year. It was a tight game at halftime, but Lucas Devilliers went down with an injury and the Cougars went on to go nuts in the second half.

Before I start, I want to provide a little backstory.

I went to Hamilton for middle school, just before Cy Woods opened. I lived in Quail Forest, which is off Grant Road near the intersection with Louetta. This was a neighborhood that had been zoned to Cy-Fair for a long time, but when Woods opened, this neighborhood, along with Longwood, Lakewood Glen, Fairwood, Rock Creek (when it was just barely being populated), Lakewood Glen Trails, and Lakewood Oaks Estates, was re-zoned to Cy Woods.

Hamilton had always been divided between Cy-Fair and Cy Creek, but when Cy Woods opened, it ended up getting split in three. And then when Cy Ranch opened, those neighborhoods went back to Cy-Fair. That's how I ended up at Woods and my brother went to Cy-Fair; while some people I knew had older siblings who went to Cy-Fair, I was the opposite.

This game had a few bragging rights at stake, especially for those of us who went to Hamilton with some of the Creek players. Of course, we also had a little payback on our minds.

The Cougars had some outstanding players on their roster in 2009. Cameron Fleming ended up going to Stanford and won two Super Bowls with the Patriots. Chuckie Keeton started three years for them and went on to set records at Utah State. Ivan and Archie Muniz both signed with Mississippi State. Brent Mitcham, an old friend of mine, signed with Texas Tech. Will Hampton played four seasons at Northwestern and was a starter on their defensive line for parts of two seasons. Cy Creek had legit Division I talent on their squad in 2009. But the one guy I thought would be the best of all of them was their running back, Jermichael Selders. In my opinion, he was one of the five best players that Woods faced that season, even with Dallas Skyline trotting out a whole starting lineup of DI football players. So much unfulfilled promise...

Trying to dethrone Creek wouldn't be easy, especially with the firepower they possessed. This game was a 48-minute heavyweight fight and it took all hands in order for Woods to earn the victory.

Both teams scored in the first quarter; the Wildcats opened the scoring when Colton Huntsman connected with Isaiah Battle for a 32-yard touchdown pass. Selders scored the Cougars' touchdown right before the end of the quarter. Colton scored late in the second and gave Woods a 14-7 halftime lead.

Creek turned the tables to start the second half and scored twice to take a 20-13 lead into the fourth quarter; they missed an extra point, which always looms large. Unlike the previous year's encounter, however, there wouldn't be a sense of déjà vu. We could hang with those guys and we could beat them.

Both defenses held steady for the vast majority of the final 12 minutes, but the Wildcats finally broke through with a late march downfield that culminated with Huntsman diving in from four yards out with 45 seconds left in regulation. The always-reliable Andrew Klink hit the extra point to put Woods back in front and the outcome of this game rested in our defense's hands. The Cougars advanced into Wildcat territory but we held them back to force them into a long field goal attempt (it had to be from at least 45 yards out), which naturally fell short and would've been wide right had it had the requisite distance. Payback... earned. In a game where both teams scored three touchdowns, a missed extra point turned out to be the difference.

This game was just one of the many thrilling victories earned by the Cy Woods Wildcats during the course of the 2009 season. We rebounded from an ugly loss on Homecoming by knocking off Jersey Village, but this win over the defending district champions was a legit shot in the arm for us.