Cougars secure higher seed in 6A bracket
Saturday’s penultimate regularseason home game was a special occasion for the 46 seniors who make up three-fourths of Cypress Creek’s roster.
They made sure their play was slightly more special than Memorial’s, too.
Three key plays helped the Cougars corral a three-score halftime lead, and they cruised to a 31-6 win at Pridgeon Stadium that secured the higher playoff seed in the Class 6A Division II bracket.
“That makes all the difference in the world,” said coach Greg McCaig, who recorded his 100th win at Cy Creek. “The first three games of the year we lost because we were atrocious special teams-wise, and that was my fault, so we spend forever on special teams now, and our punting game was outstanding.”
Cy Creek improved to 6-3 overall, 6-1 in District 17-6A.
With Cy-Fair and Cy Falls locked into the Division I playoff bracket, Creek will go Division II as the No. 1 seed. Creek also kept alive its chances of sharing the district title with a win over Cy-Fair next week.
“This is the neighborhood game,” McCaig said. “They went to church together, they went to middle school together, and we’ll line up. They show up, we show up, and I promise you it’ll be a good game.”
Despite the loss, Memorial (5-4, 4-3) still slots in as the second seed in Division II.
The Cougars converted a fake punt on their first possession, with Chaedron Wright carrying for five yards on fourth-and-4, but they still ended up punting. Then Memorial muffed the punt, and the Cougars recovered, setting up Jayden Gilbert’s five-yard touchdown run three plays later for a 7-0 lead.
They extended their advantage to 10-0 on Diego Gracia’s 31-yard field goal.
Memorial tried its own fake punt after Creek’s field goal and came up short. However, Gracia was low and short on a 49-yard field goal attempt after the turnover on downs, limiting the damage.
Then the Mustangs damaged themselves.
Gracia attempted another field goal, from 39 yards, and this one was blocked by Matthew McHenry on a big play, but instead of letting the ball die, a Mustangs player picked it up at the 1 — where they were forced to take over. They ended up punting from their end zone, setting up Creek’s next score.
Cogan Derousselle provided the payoff on an 11-yard toss from QB Julian Uwadia.
That score gave Cy Creek a 17-0 lead at halftime, and helped send Memorial into the break with only 29 total yards.
The Mustangs missed a 35-yard field goal wide left on the opening possession of the third quarter, after they held the ball for nearly 6 minutes, and when they finally scored — after Patrick Smith intercepted Uwadia — on a 10-yard run by Carson Zahn, they missed the extra point low, leaving them down 17-6.
The Cougars missed two fields in the first half, were plagued by dropped passes throughout the contest, and Smith’s pick, which he returned 34 yards to set up a score, kept the Mustangs uncomfortably close.
“We had breakdowns in some of the blocking, which hurt us, but we were also playing a couple of different kids, who weren’t normally in those positions, and they played real slow, real deliberate … and I don’t blame them because we’ve been averaging right at 40 points a game over the last five or six games,” McCaig said.
Da’Quan Jefferson finally sealed it in the fourth.
The senior cornerback intercepted Memorial QB Matthew Sanders in stride and never slowed down en route to a 40-yard touchdown, giving the Cougars a 24-6 advantage with 8:19 remaining.
“If you can score on defense, that changes everything, because now the equation is completely different,” McCaig said. “As soon as we scored right there, that sucker was over.”
Eddie Jimerson added a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:16 left.
Cy Creek finished with 309 total yards and 18 first downs. Uwadia completed 22 of 38 passes for 186 yards, with one TD and one INT.
Memorial managed only 155 yards and nine first downs.
Now McCaig, who was all smiles after this one, can go for win No. 101 next week — and another 100 after that.
“Any time you can work in a community that values success and supports their programs like Cy Creek does … good things can happen,” said McCaig, who’s two kids graduated from Creek. “I’ve had tremendous support, from all of these guys I’ve worked for at different times, and they’ve been great. Really, it’s the culmination of a long time (18 seasons) is what it is.”