Photo courtesy of Phlox Photography.
Photo galleries for this game and all sub-varsity games can be viewed by clicking here.
The Cypress Woods Wildcats closed out the 2019 regular season where it began: in Aggieland. This time, they went up to Bryan and came away with a 33-17 victory over the Bryan Vikings to wrap up their season with a 7-3 overall record and a 7-1 mark in District 14-6A play. As a result of this victory, the Wildcats have clinched a district championship! This is their first district championship since 2010.
Well actually, they have to share this title with Tomball Memorial even though they won head-to-head. In my book, Cy Woods' 31-28 victory when those two teams met all the way back in September is the tiebreaker. Unfortunately, the district recognizes co-champions so there's no choice but to accept that decision. In the end, it's just high school football and I have neither the time nor the energy to waste on any "one true champion" nonsense. I will say this, though... it's much better to share a district title with someone other than Ranch.
It's been quite the journey for the Class of 2020. They had to watch Cy Woods football crash to the bottom of the standings and I'm sure that none of them expected to participate in a rebuilding process. As juniors, they did their part in helping to complete the rebuild by getting the Cats back to the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Now in control of the program, these guys led a Cy Woods team to an achievement that has only been done one other time in program history as they will finish their final regular season as district (co-)champions.
After... whatever that was two weeks ago, the Cats decided to roll with Dylan Cormier as the starting quarterback and he acquitted himself very well in his first career start at the varsity level. Well, the second half wasn't the greatest display of Cy Woods football that I've seen as threw a pick-six and lost a couple of fumbles in a span of three possessions, but the Cats' 33-0 halftime lead held up in the end despite the Vikings managing to dent it a bit.
And now the real fun begins. On to the playoffs!
What Happened
The Vikings started this game with the ball. On the second play of the game, they tried to run a double reverse but the second pitch was mishandled and Colton Morris pounced on the loose ball to give Woods possession. It took three plays for Woods to open the scoring as Dylan Cormier hit Cam Sowell on the slant for a 24-yard touchdown. Bryan got a big kickoff return from Christian Richardson but that drive also ended in a turnover as Chase Richter intercepted Nico Bulhof. He was apparently ruled down at the Woods four-yard line, but no matter. The Cats drove 96 yards for another score, capped off by a 39-yard pass from Cormier to Sowell.
Richter muffed a punt about midway through the opening period but Reagan Simmons was able to get on the ball at midfield. Trayse Holmes did all the heavy lifting on Woods' next drive but in the end, Christian Scott scored on a three-yard run.
End of 1st Quarter: Woods 20, Bryan 0
After Christian put the Cats inside the Vikings' ten-yard line, Cormier threw his third touchdown pass of the night on a bootleg, finding Jeshurun Williams in the flat from nine yards out. Holmes capped off an 11-play, 68-yard drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock by getting in with a one-yard run.
Halftime: Woods 33, Bryan 0
Both teams traded three-and-outs to start the second half, but the Vikings got on the board when J.D. Smith picked off Cormier and returned the interception 79 yards for a touchdown. This was the first of three straight possessions that ended in turnovers by the Cats. Cormier lost a fumble on the next drive and Bulhof converted that miscue into points by nailing a 40-yard field goal. Bryan recovered another fumble near the end of the third quarter but they ended up punting the ball away to start the fourth quarter.
End of 3rd Quarter: Woods 33, Bryan 10
The only scoring play in the final quarter was a 77-yard touchdown run from Christian Richardson with a little over four minutes left in the game.
Final: Woods 33, Bryan 17
Ground
Prior to this game, no Wildcat player had run for 100 yards in a game this year. Trayse Holmes finally broke through with 109 on 22 carries. His form this year has been a bit inconsistent but he picked a great time to turn in his best game of the year. He'll have to find a way to build upon this if the Cats want to make a run in November.
Cormier looks to be a good fit for this offense; he certainly has the frame to absorb contact and that is a vital skill to have in a system where the quarterback serves as the catalyst for virtually every play. With time, he should be able to turn some two-yard gains into four yards and/or more.
The box score for this game and all statistics, as always, are provided by Varsity Wires.
Trayse Holmes: 22 rush, 109 yards, TD
Dylan Cormier: 15 rush, 31 yards
Christian Scott: 8 rush, 44 yards, TD
Jeshurun Williams: 3 rush, 18 yards
JaVarian Stewart: 2 rush, 17 yards
Rudy Mejia: 2 rush, 9 yards
Team: 1 rush, -2 yards (Cormier took a knee to end the game)
Air
Out of all the quarterbacks in the Cats' system, Cormier by far has the best pure arm strength and the Cats opened things up a little in order to take advantage of that. He put up two beautiful throws to Cam Sowell for two scores and hit Jeshurun Williams right on the numbers after rolling out. On the other hand, he threw quite a few balls behind receivers and Bryan probably should've intercepted him more than once.
With that being said, he did as well as one could expect, especially now that he has had time to settle into the starting role.
Dylan Cormier: 9-18, 193 yards, 3 TD, INT
If the Cats still ran the spread, Cam Sowell would probably be flirting with a 1000-yard season at this point. He's still put up huge numbers in an overwhelmingly run-first offense. Cam is absolutely just as good (and in some cases, probably better than) as guys like Logan Kyle, Khaliq Mateen, and Dylan Goffney.
Cam Sowell: 3 rec, 77 yards, 2 TD
Amari McDonald: 2 rec, 48 yards
Christian Scott: 1 rec, 27 yards
JaVarian Stewart: 1 rec, 19 yards
Rudy Mejia: 1 rec, 13 yards
Jeshurun Williams: 1 rec, 9 yards, TD
Defense
Until Richardson ripped off his 77-yard run, Bryan had a grand total of 50 yards on offense. As a result, the Vikings finished with one more yard (127) than Langham Creek (126) did against Woods.
Sixteen Wildcats recorded at least one tackle and there was a three-way tie at the top with Kahlil Robinson, Jakob Jones, and Taber Tofte all finishing with... three. Not letting the opponent sustain drives is a great thing, even if there's fewer opportunities to put up stats. Jones and Ethan Gonzales both combined on a sack early in the second quarter.
As I mentioned earlier, Colton Morris recovered a fumble on the second play of the game and Chase Richter intercepted a pass.
Special Teams
Michael Fernandez had a rare rough night (relatively speaking) as he missed two extra points. 3-5 XP
Trajan Armstrong: 2 punts, 69 yards (34.5 average), long of 54
Chase Richter: 2 punts returned, 27 yards; long of 30
Christian Scott: 1 kick return, 25 yards
Man of the Match
Trayse Holmes gets the nod for his 100-yard game. Without a doubt, this was his finest performance of the year. Dylan Cormier also gets kudos for winning his first varsity start, although cleaning up the miscues will definitely be a point of emphasis heading into the playoffs. By now, any margin of error is completely gone.
Sub-Varsity Results
Freshman Gold - L 17-15 @ Bryan
Freshman Cardinal - L 17-16 @ Bryan
JV - W 21-0 vs. Bryan; combined team
The Freshman Gold team lost on a field goal as time expired. Yes, you read that correctly.
Final sub-varsity records
Freshman Gold - 4-4 (one game canceled)
Freshman Cardinal - 7-2
JV Gold - 3-5 (one game canceled)
JV Cardinal - 4-5
Combined teams - 2-0 (both freshman and JV played one combined game apiece)
Total, not counting combined games: 18-16
Looking Ahead
It's playoff time in Texas!
The Cypress Woods Wildcats will begin their road to Arlington on Friday, November 15 when they host the Cedar Ridge Raiders from District 13-6A in a Class 6A Region II, Division I bi-district playoff game at Cy-Fair FCU Stadium. Kickoff is at 7:00.
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