Bridgeland 35, Cypress Woods 28: Weigman Show

2020 Record: 2-2, 1-1 in District 16-6A

Photo courtesy: Carmen Agnew, Phlox Photography/MaxPreps

Photo galleries for this week's games: Varsity, JV Cardinal, JV Gold, Freshman Cardinal, Freshman Gold

Plug: Are you a parent of a Cy Woods football player and would like to have some pictures to remember this season by? Phlox Photography has you covered. A photographer will be on-site at every Cy Woods varsity football game, all Cy Woods sub-varsity home games, and depending on availability, certain away sub-varsity games. 

For more information on how to purchase a spotlight photo gallery for your athlete, please contact Tom Dendy, JoAnn Nowak, or Carmen Agnew, visit the Phlox website for more details, or check out this explainer video on how to order photos. Tom, Mrs. Nowak, and Mrs. Agnew are all official MaxPreps photographers and you can also view their photos on Cy Woods' MaxPreps page.

The all-world talent of Conner Weigman was on display on Friday and his 28-yard touchdown run with 19 seconds left in regulation proved to be the difference as the Cypress Woods Wildcats lost a varsity football game to the Bridgeland Bears for the first time by a final score of 35-28. 

When the Bears took a two-score lead in the third quarter, I had the feeling that the floodgates were about to open and that Woods would just get swept away in the deluge. And then Chris Agnew pounced on a loose ball. And then the offense took advantage of the short field to score. And then Josh Jones broke up a pass on fourth down to give the Cats the ball back. And suddenly, this game was tied after Dylan Cormier found Ryan Faulk for a touchdown pass. Cy Woods definitely found themselves hanging around with a clearly superior team in this game. They controlled the ball. They kept the vaunted Bridgeland offense off the field. Unfortunately, the Bears still managed to get their chunk plays.

The offense took better care of the ball this week, which was crucial because you definitely don't want to gift an offense like Bridgeland's free possessions. Unfortunately, they had a few too many plays go backward in this game. Bridgeland's speed on defense certainly forced the issue, and Dylan Cormier also took a couple of big sacks that... just throw the ball away.

All things considered, this result surprised me a little considering everyone (even me, somehow) thought that Bridgeland would win this in a rout. No moral victories, especially at this level of high school football, though. The Wildcats played hard and hung around, Bridgeland made a few more plays, tip your cap and move on.

On to Langham Creek.

What Happened

The Bears opened the scoring with a one-yard touchdown pass from Conner Weigman to Dylan Crippen. This was the only scoring play of the first quarter.

End of 1st Quarter: Bridgeland 6, Woods 0

Trayse Holmes put Woods on the board and in the lead midway through the second quarter with a rugged 12-yard run that saw him break three, maybe four tackles. But once again, Weigman struck again as he found Andrew Maleski, who won a jump-ball battle and took it in for a 17-yard touchdown catch to put the Bears back in front. Mason Culton ran in the two-point conversion afterward.

Halftime: Bridgeland 14, Woods 7

Bridgeland also opened the second-half scoring when Weigman hit Atrevion Hunter, who slashed his way into the end zone from 43 yards out. Woods got a first down on their first drive of the second half but nothing more. Bridgeland got a first down on their next drive, but the ball somehow slipped out of Weigman's hand and Chris Agnew pounced on the loose ball at Bridgeland's 32 to give the Wildcats new life. Weigman just put the ball on the ground and he somehow just let it go. On fourth down from Bridgeland's ten-yard line, Dylan Cormier hit Myles Johnson on the slant for a touchdown. The defense turned the Bears over on downs and the offense capitalized again as Cormier found Ryan Faulk for a five-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 21.

End of 3rd Quarter: Bridgeland 21, Woods 21

Towards the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats gave up a 50-yard pass on third and long that put Bridgeland within striking distance once again and then on the second play of the fourth quarter, Weigman floated one up to Hunter Wallis for an 11-yard touchdown pass. Both teams traded punts and then Woods got the ball back with a little under eight minutes to go. Connor Morris had a step on his man running down the seam and Cormier found him for a 28-yard touchdown pass to tie the game with four minutes to go. That was entirely too much time for Weigman, however, and the Bears slowly but surely made their way down the field, aided by a hit to a defenseless receiver penalty against the Wildcats. Once inside Wildcat territory, Bridgeland took their time and Weigman took things into his hands and won the game with his 28-yard run with 19 seconds left. An inexplicable onside kick (I highly doubt they meant to do that) that went out of bounds gave Woods one more shot, but... no dice.

A great player made a great play. That's all there is to it.

Final: Bridgeland 35, Woods 28

Ground

The Wildcats' ground attack was stifled by the Bears as they couldn't even muster up three yards per carry. Even when the Wildcats brought in extra linemen, Bridgeland's defensive line and linebackers seemed to get free runs towards Woods ballcarriers. They had a little more success on pitches, but the Bears' secondary eventually proved to be just too quick for them. In all, the Wildcats lost 76 yards on running plays, or plays that were classified as runs. 76! Way too many backwards plays in this game. 

Now, the Wildcats were missing their starting center, Braden Barrett. As a result, Adam Conejo had to step in and I thought he did alright. It's a tough ask to replace your starting center and your best offensive lineman, but when it's your time...

Air

No idea what that last play was supposed to look like. I'm sure they wanted to keep the double pass in their pocket because they ran it twice for touchdowns against Falls the previous week, but it didn't look like they had any sort of plan for the last play. And they had a timeout they could have used to discuss it too! 

Connor Morris was limited this week, but nice to see him get a step on his man to haul in a big touchdown grab. Myles Johnson has seemingly turned into the #1 receiving option for the Wildcats, which is a big step up for a kid who started last season on the JV Gold (B) team. 

Defense

After one month's worth of games, I can conclude that the secondary hasn't been great. Then again, regression was to likely expected after all four starters from last year graduated. Falls couldn't hit anybody, but Katy, who is not known for their passing game, couldn't miss against the Wildcats and even Kingwood got a few big plays through the air. Against Bridgeland, those issues were always going to be exacerbated, so all you could probably ask was for them to just hold out without giving up too many chunk plays. 

Maybe one of these days, Cy Woods will have cornerbacks who will turn to look for the ball when the receiver they are covering turns to look for the ball. They put themselves in good positions to make plays more often than not... they just don't know where the ball is until it's in the receiver's hands.

Thirteen Wildcats recorded at least one tackle and Dylan Rogers took the top spot this week with 11. Eight of his takedowns in this game were unassisted. Tyler Sherrill forced the game's only turnover when he strip-sacked Conner Weigman in the third quarter, which led to a Woods touchdown.

Tough to win when you give up eight third-down conversions. The Wildcat defense needed to find a way to get off the field but again, Bridgeland's offense made the plays they needed to make to stay on the field.

Special Teams

For once, kickoffs were not an adventure. The only special teams miscue in this game came when Ryan Faulk couldn't handle a snap on the first punt of the night. 

Michael Fernandez hit all four of his extra points and missed a 35-yard field goal. 

Game Summary from Varsity Wires

- Played their game, but Bridgeland's chunk plays pretty much negated Woods' time of possession advantage.

- The Bears had 12 tackles for loss and the Wildcats lost 70 yards on those plays! 

Man of the Match: Dylan Rogers and Trey Craft

Dylan has led the Wildcats in tackles in all but one game this season. He's a sophomore and of course, he will show his youth sometimes, usually by taking poor pursuit angles, but he's looking like a Defensive Newcomer of the Year candidate and if he continues to lead the team in tackles, he may very well win it. Ethan Spear and Gavin Swan from Cy Falls and Jarra Anderson from Cy Park would probably be his primary competition.

Trey Craft continues to be a revelation (relatively speaking, considering their early-season struggles) at the A-back spot. He's probably entrenched himself as a starter at this point.

Sub-Varsity Results

Bridgeland 42, Freshman Gold (1-3, 0-2) 19

Bridgeland 49, Freshman Cardinal (1-3, 0-2) 12

Bridgeland 6, JV Gold (1-1, 1-1) 0

Bridgeland 8, JV Cardinal (1-1, 1-1) 0

Looking Ahead

Week 5 in District 16-6A (well, it's Week 5 for Class 6A and 5A) kicks off on Thursday and Cy Woods will face the Langham Creek Lobos on Thursday, October 22 at Pridgeon Stadium. Kickoff is at 6:30 and the Wildcats will be the home team in this contest.