Cy Woods 41, Langham Creek 39: Never. A. Doubt.

2018 record: 2-2, 1-1 in District 14-6A

Photo by Tom Dendy

View more photos from this game here.

Hello. Are you still breathing? Alright, cool.

A sudden tropical storm got in the way on Thursday but the Cypress Woods Wildcats' game against the Langham Creek Lobos at the Berry Center went off without incident. The Cats went into halftime with a 28-14 lead and then saw a 35-14 lead vanish as Chris Herron took over in the second half to set up a heart-stopping finish that saw Langham take the lead with 1:13 left in the game In the end, though, Gustavo Olmedo was the hero as his 47-yard field goal sailed through the night and through the uprights at the buzzer, giving the Wildcats a dramatic 41-39 victory and a fine segue into the weekend.

Now, blowing a 35-14 lead is... definitely not ideal. But as the old adage goes, a win is a win. It wouldn't be that easy; after all, Chris Herron is arguably the best football player in Cy-Fair ISD and he almost willed his team to the victory by himself. He played an incredible game and all of my respect goes to him and the Lobos for a such a fine game. But, it's good to see the Cats coming out on top in the end.

Going 2-2 in a pretty tough opening stretch is alright and starting 1-1 in district is infinitely better than going 0-2. For some reason, Cy Woods will always start 1-1 in district every year so I've learned to not really care too much if/when they lose one of the first two district games. Even better news for the Cats is that the schedule now softens up a bit. Their next real test will probably be the penultimate game against Cy Ranch. With that being said, Bridgeland and a vastly-improved Cy Lakes will not be easy outs. Enjoy the thrill of this victory but come Monday, get locked in again because there's still plenty of football to be played.

Classic? Eh... it'd be real hard to top the ten best games of the first decade, but this one will surely go a long way towards determining whether Cy Woods will break its playoff drought this year. After that debacle in Tomball, the Cats have gotten themselves out of an early bind and put the Lobos firmly in that bind.

The Game, Summed Up in an Image I Found on the Internet

Eh, let's mix things up a bit.


I imagine that if you are reading this, you probably don't know Korean, so here are the lyrics:


What Happened

The Wildcats survived the Chris Herron Show in the second half. Do I sense a shift in offensive philosophy?

The Wildcats went three-and-out to begin the game but on the first defensive play, Jackson Hosemann intercepted a pass from Herron to give Cy Woods the ball once again. The offense turned the turnover into points as Carson Danner hit Christian Scott for a seven-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring. After yet another Lobo turnover (this time a fumble), Danner scored on a seven-yard run. The Cats forced three turnovers on their first three defensive possession, but the third time was not a charm. A botched pitch gave the Lobos the ball at Cy Woods' 30 and Corien Azema put Langham on the board with a two-yard touchdown run.

End of 1st Quarter: Woods 14, Langham 14

Herron tied the game with a five-yard touchdown run in the second, but the Cats hit back for two touchdowns. Danner scored from two yards out and on the final play of the first half, Cameron Sowell won a jump ball in the end zone to reestablish the Wildcats' two-score advantage.

Halftime: Woods 28, Langham 14

Mr. Bird told me that if he were the Lobos, he would've given Chris Herron free rein to do what he wanted. That's what we saw in the second half...

Danner scored yet again on a quarterback sneak from less than a yard to open the second-half scoring. And then the Lobos struck back. Azema fielded a punt and should have been brought down immediately for no gain... instead, he scored from 50 yards. Herron got Langham back in the game with a 30-yard touchdown run. The extra point snap was botched, fortunately.

End of 3rd Quarter: Woods 35, Langham 27

Gustavo Olmedo hit a 25-yard field goal to slow down the Lobos' momentum somewhat, but Herron would not be denied. He scored from 19 yards and also got tagged with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Woods took the penalty and repelled the subsequent 18-yard two-point conversion attempt. Reagan Simmons picked Herron off in the end zone with less than two minutes to go. That should have sealed a 38-33 Cy Woods victory, right?

Nope.

The Cats went three-and-out on their next drive and Danner's punt failed to make it out of Cy Woods territory. On the very next play, Ronald Rowan caught Herron's heave inside the Cy Woods five-yard line. Herron put the Lobos in front with his fourth rushing touchdown of the night. The kickoff went for a touchback, so that left the Cy Woods offense with 73 seconds and one timeout to go 75 yards for a touchdown.

Well, it turns out that they didn't need all 75 yards. Danner executed the final drive to perfection and the offense was aided by an unnecessary roughness call following a catch from Jake Tesch that got them closer. Following the penalty, Danner looked to pass but had to scramble and was taken down inbounds, so the clock continued to run under ten seconds. Danner spiked the ball with four seconds left and Gustavo Olmedo came on for his moment of truth: a 47-yard field goal. Make it, and the Wildcats win. Miss it, and they'd really be up against it with a 0-2 district record.

The ball took flight off Olmedo's leg and cleared the uprights as the clock struck zero. Both officials raised their arms in the air to signify that the field goal attempt was good, and that's how Cy Woods won this football game.

Final: Cy Woods 41, Langham 39

Ground

The Wildcats still ran the ball more than they passed, but the vast majority of their run plays didn't come out of the Wing-T formation. I don't think they lined up in that formation at all after the first quarter. Carson Danner had to earn all 173 of his yards as he needed 37 rushing attempts to get there and none of his runs went more than 17 yards.

Guess the spread is gradually making its way back to Cy Woods. Stats from MaxPreps.

Carson Danner: 37 rush, 173 yards, 3 TD
Jacob Tesch: 12 rush, 121 yards
Darion Morgan: 5 rush, 3 yards
Trayse Holmes: 1 rush, 0 yards
Jackson Jones: 1 rush, -4 yards

Air

Danner looked a lot more comfortable throwing the ball in this game although he's still working to throw better balls to give his receivers a chance. Most of his incompletions were on balls that were thrown behind his intended receivers and the one interception he threw came on a ball that he threw behind Cameron Sowell, who reached back and tipped the ball right into a Langham defender's hands.

Carson Danner: 14-26, 183 yards, 2 TD, INT

Christian Scott: 6 catches, 60 yards, TD
Cameron Sowell: 2 catches, 31 yards, TD
Jacob Tesch: 3 catches, 35 yards
Connor Faulk: 2 catches, 46 yards
Darion Morgan: 1 catch, 11 yards

Defense

I'm going to have to scrounge through all of the old box scores, but I am fairly confident that the seven turnovers they forced in this game is most likely a record. The Cats picked Herron off four times and recovered three more fumbles.

Herron terrorized the Cats with his legs once again by scoring four times on the ground, but the Wildcat defense intercepted him four times and all seven of Langham's turnovers were on him, so I think it all evens out.

Interceptions: Nolan Authorlee, Reagan Simmons, Jackson Hosemann, Caleb Rutherford

All four players recorded their first interceptions of the season.

Fumbles recovered: Caleb Rutherford, Chris Agnew, Jason Christenson

Nineteen Wildcats recorded at least one tackle in this game and Chase Richter led the way with seven. Mac Bird had six tackles and also sacked Herron for a loss of 12 yards.

Special Teams

Gustavo Olmedo hit all of his kicks... including the one that he most definitely had to make. I'll have to scrounge through all of the old box scores but I am fairly sure that he is the first Cy Woods kicker to have more than one successful field goal in a game.

Olmedo scored eleven points, which is the second-highest scoring output for a Cy Woods kicker in a single game. The 47-yarder that won the game is not a school record (Luis Reyes hit from 48 yards against Lakes in 2014) but that's not important; the important thing is that Olmedo's kick won the game.

Gustavo Olmedo: 2-2 FG (made 25, 47), 5-5 XP; game-winning 47-yard FG as time expired

Carson Danner punted the ball four times for a total of 134 yards for an average of 33.5 yards per punt.

Christian Scott returned the opening kickoff 12 yards. That was the only chance that the Wildcats had to return a kick or a punt.

Man of the Match

Hmm... pretty tough choice this week.

47-yard field goal with the game on the line? No problem when you have ice water in your veins like Cy Woods' Gustavo Olmedo (@olmedo669). Check out his kick that beat Langham Creek 41-39 tonight. (Video by @Texan_Live) #txhsfb pic.twitter.com/D88k3puFEu

— Chron HS Sports (@HoustonChronHS) September 21, 2018

Looking Ahead

The Wildcats will face the Bridgeland Bears for the first time ever. Kickoff is Saturday, September 29 at 6:00 at the Berry Center. Cy Woods will be the visitors for this contest.