Cy Woods on a mission to reclaim playoff berth
players,” Faith said. “It’s a real positive vibe, and the kids are working hard.
“Our expectations are high. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to continue winning, but we’ll play them one at a time and see what happens.”
Quarterback Nick Hooper played well in his second start, completing 9 of 13 passes for 141 yards without a pick. He also scored on a 1-yard run. He drew his first start in the regular-season finale last year and beat Jersey Village.
Now he’s 2-0 as the Wildcats’ starting quarterback.
“I know he was nervous, be he did an outstanding job, and he’s going to grow and get better every week,” Faith said.
“Our offense didn’t perform as well as they would like to have performed … but we made the plays when we had to, and that’s the sign of a good team.”
The mistakes Faith referred to were mostly of the mental variety, procedure penalties and the like. So the Wildcats worked on polishing their play during last week’s week off before the district opener.
The begin District 175A play against Langham Creek on Friday at the Berry Center.
Faith said they didn’t spend extra time gameplanning for the Lobos, who also were off last week, giving them equal preparation time.
“You can sometimes overdo it,” he said. “We just want to keep our gameplan simple and keep getting better at what we’re doing.
“But Langham is scary on offense. They throw and catch so well, they’ve got some really dangerous weapons out there at wide receiver, and the quarterback (Kyle Cutbirth) is an accurate thrower.”
The Wildcats have weapons of their own.
Running back Sam Stewart caught at touchdown pass and threw for a touchdown against Collins, and former quarterback Mason Roberts, now playing slot receiver, can do a little bit of everything.
“(Roberts) carried the ball, he made a big catch … and we find other ways to get him the ball,” Faith said. “We put him in the backfield, and we’re doing some things differently formation-wise, getting in a two-back set, and threeback sets.”
A slow start doomed Cy Woods in a 32-31 loss to Langham Creek last season.
This year, it’s going in with a little more confidence defensively, thanks to the shutout, but it’ll be a big test for cornerbacks Sam Dobbs and Stevie Polly.
“Every week’s going to be a dogfight, and it’ll be Week 9 and it probably still won’t be sorted out,” Faith said.
“That’s the way it is every year.” Jason McDaniel is a freelance writer who can be reached at jasonrmcdaniel@ outlook.com.