2020 Record: 3-3, 2-2 in District 16-6A
Photo courtesy: Carmen Agnew, Phlox Photography/MaxPreps
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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 certified MaxPreps photographers and you can also view their photos on Cy Woods' MaxPreps page.
I'll start with a content warning because this game was simply an affront to the sport of American football. The descriptions of this game aren't pretty and if you were there in person like I was, my condolences go out to you for subjecting yourself to this atrocity.
Oh brother.
On a beautiful afternoon to close out October, the Cypress Woods Wildcats delivered an absolute stinker on offense. Meanwhile, the defense more than earned their keep as they held the Cypress Ranch Mustangs to just 210 yards on the day, but Ranch's offense found a way to be slightly less incompetent and once again, for the seventh consecutive year, the Mustangs will be writing the next chapter of this book as they emerged with a 20-2 victory.
For the first time since the 2013 regular-season finale against Jersey Village, the Cypress Woods Wildcats failed to score a point on offense. So technically, yes... the offense got shut out. Thanks to Grant Ladner sacking D.J. Ciers in the end zone in the second quarter, Cy Woods avoided finishing a football game with zero points.
What's frustrating is that this game was winnable if the Wildcats had any semblance of offensive production.
I hate to say it, but this game has lost a significant amount of its luster over the years. It's clear that this is still a game that the Woods community gets up for and it's a fun matchup to talk about, but Woods just seems snakebit when they go up against Ranch. And now with Bridgeland posing a serious problem for the Mustangs (well, they're officially everyone's serious problem now), this matchup is just about ready to shed its status as a "rivalry game."
We're also learning that there is a clear talent gap in District 16-6A and it's much more pronounced than in recent years. Bridgeland is well ahead of everyone else here, that's obvious. There's a gap between them and Bridgeland, but Ranch is probably the second-most talented team in 16-6A. After an even bigger gap, Park and Woods are in the next tier, so to speak. Those are probably going to be the four playoff teams this year. After that, Langham is improving and trying to mount a challenge for the top four, but after them then is a cliff where Falls, Springs, and Lakes reside at the bottom.
On another note, it was nice to see Coach Zachos again. Mike Zachos was the defensive coordinator at Cy Woods until the 2018 season, a position that he had held since the school opened. He served as the defensive coordinator at Humble last season and is now back in Cy-Fair ISD as an assistant... for Ranch. Traitor. Just kidding. If I remember correctly, Coach Z has known Coach McAuliffe over at Ranch for a long time and they've gone hunting together in the past. If you're reading this, Coach, hope you're doing well and it was good to see you again, even if you are on the other side now.
Well, no time to wallow over this one because it's a short week. On to Park.
What Happened
The Mustangs opened the scoring with a pair of Charlie Feris field goals in the first quarter.
End of 1st Quarter: Cypress Ranch 6, Cypress Woods 0
Woods got on the board in the second quarter with a safety as Grant Ladner brought D.J. Ciers down in the end zone with a little over five minutes left in the first half. Turns out that those two points would be Cy Woods' only two points of the day.
Halftime: Cypress Ranch 6, Cypress Woods 2
One team finally found the end zone in the third quarter, and unfortunately, it was not Cy Woods. Ciers rolled out to his left to avoid a sack and chucked one up towards the end zone, and Edwin Smith tumbled in after coming down with the ball at around the Woods two-yard line.
Ranch's other touchdown legitimately upset me because it really should not have happened. Dylan Cormier rolled out to his right on an option play and an ill-advised pitch to Trey Craft was mishandled since Craft got drilled the moment he touched the ball and the carom found its way to Orlando Thibodeaux, who plays for Cypress Ranch.
Thibodeaux proceeded to return the fortuitous bounce 50 yards the other way to more or less ice this game because it was quite obvious that Woods was not going to get anything done on offense in this one. And it's going down as an interception, despite the fact that the pitch went completely backward. However, as Craft gets hit, he bats the ball forward and the ball never hits the turf. Basically, Orlando Thibodeaux returned an intercepted lateral for a touchdown. You can basically sum up this game with that play.
There was no scoring in the fourth quarter.
Final: Cypress Ranch 20, Cypress Woods 2
Ground
The running game was a fiasco. Missed blocks, incorrect reads, ill-advised pitches, one of which got returned for a touchdown...
Air
The passing game was a fiasco. I mean, whatever I say here will just lead you to draw the conclusion that Cy Woods' offense stunk, which... they did.
Defense
Yeah, it's not a good day when the defense scores more points than the offense. They certainly played well enough to win, but uh... it's almost impossible to win a game where you score two points.
Twice they bailed out the special teams: Michael Fernandez completely whiffed on his first punt, which gave the Mustangs the ball at the Woods 24-yard line, but the defense tightened up and held Ranch to a field goal. Riley Redgrave's interception negated a bad snap on another punt attempt that resulted in a 30-yard loss and put Ranch in scoring position yet again. The Wildcat defense fought all afternoon to repel the Mustangs and their offense couldn't back them up by scoring points.
This safety was the first for Cy Woods since 2013 when they had one against Cypress Ridge. It is also the fourth safety recorded in Cy Woods football history; the other two occurred against Cypress Creek in 2008 and Cypress Springs in 2010.
Thirteen Wildcats recorded at least one tackle in this game and this week, Carson Smith and Dylan Rogers share the top spot with ten apiece. Riley Redgrave put up another fine game as he had six tackles and a big interception to stop a Ranch scoring threat.
Special Teams
The kicking game was not much of an adventure since the Wildcats only had one chance for a kickoff and it was fair caught. Philip White ripped off a couple of nice returns; he had a 31-yard punt return and a 27-yard kickoff return. Cumulatively, White racked up a total of 113 return yards.
Unfortunately, special teams has presented its challenges for the Wildcats this season and sadly, this game proved to be no different. Punting was the phase that was afflicted here. Michael Fernandez's first punt attempt appeared to get blocked... but he actually just missed the ball. Yeah, his foot failed to make contact with the ball. Fortunately, the defense held Ranch to a field goal. His second punt attempt never happened because the snap sailed over his head. But again, the defense saved the day as Riley Redgrave intercepted D.J. Ciers.
Game Summary from Varsity Wires
If you skipped the content warning, that's on you honestly.
Good defense? Yeah, there were some nice defensive plays made on both sides, but both offenses were largely shambolic.
Man of the Match: The Defense
13 points allowed, 210 yards allowed (58 plays, 3.6 yards per play), 1 INT, 1 sack, 1 safety
Let's focus on the silver linings. On a day where just about everything went wrong for Cy Woods, the defense was certainly the one thing that they had going for them. This game, to say the least, was by far the best Cy Woods defensive performance this season. They'll have a big test coming up against a Cy Park team that has been running riot as they've broken out in District 16-6A.
Sub-Varsity Results
JV combined won. They are 3-1 as a combined team.
Both freshman teams lost. They're both 1-4, 0-3 in district play.
Looking Ahead
Three district games left... better make them count. The Cypress Woods Wildcats will take on the Cypress Park Tigers to kick off Week 7 in District 16-6A on Thursday, November 5 at Cy-Fair FCU Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6:30 and the Wildcats will be the visitors in this contest.
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