Cinco Ranch’s closing kick wins 2 thrillers
Cinco Ranch is 2-0, but by the narrowest of margins.
The Cougars edged Cypress Ranch, which played in the Class 6A Division I championship game last year, and Jersey Village with late rallies capped by last-second field goals the last two weeks.
“It’s good because in both of them the kids had to battle in the fourth quarter, and that’s what you want to happen,” coach Don Clayton said. “You can’t always write the script for it but that’s what you want to happen — for them to go through some challenging times and see how they respond to it.”
He loved their response in the season opener.
The Mustangs went 13-2 last year, falling to quarterback Kyler Murray and Allen at Cowboy Stadium, and returned standout players in quarterback Colin Rock and linebacker Brayden Stringer.
But Cinco didn’t give in to their high expectations, or the highly charged environment.
“We knew about the experience they had coming back, with high-quality players at quarterback and linebacker,” Clayton said. “The two main cogs on their team are back and they’re good leaders.
“So to be able to go against them and battle them at their place, (in) their first game after a state championship game, knowing that they’re pretty hyped up about that, was good.”
The Cougars gave up 21 points to Cy Ranch in the first half and trailed by seven at the break, but their defense adjusted and allowed only a field goal in the second half, allowing the offense time to rally.
Clayton said the key sequence was after Ranch kicked the field goal for a 24-17 lead.
“We came right back and drove the length of the field and tied it up, then kicked off to them with about 5½ minutes to go, and they moved the ball a little bit and then we forced a fumble and took it 65 yards to get in that spot to kick the winning field goal,” Clayton said.
Senior kicker Donny Smith, in his first varsity start, nailed the kick from 25 yards with no time left, lifting Cinco to a 27-24 win.
Then he went and did the same thing again last week.
Smith’s 41-yarder with three seconds remaining Friday gave Cinco a 30-27 win over Jersey Village.
“It did hit the crossbar, so we found out his range into the wind,” Clayton said.
“Actually, they called two timeouts to try to ice him, and what happened was … after each timeout the wind got a little less. So if they wouldn’t have called the timeout, he might have been hard-pressed to make it.”
Now, with two close wins in hand, Clayton says Cinco Ranch still has a ways to go.
Like Cy Ranch a week earlier, the Falcons pretty much did as they pleased the first half at Rhodes, with QB Deshun Qualls throwing for two long touchdowns and rushing for another in a 21-7 start.
The Cougars’ secondhalf adjustments on defense helped save them again.
“(Qualls is) pretty dang good, and we had trouble with him, just trying to contain him, and he threw the ball very accurately and they ran good routes and caught the ball,” Clayton said. “They had us on our heels, so we were fortunate, the way it turned out, to hold them to 21 in the first half.”
The Cougars’ running game was good in Week 1, but Jersey Village contained that last week, so Clayton wants consistency.
“We still haven’t played how we’d like to be able to play offensively,” He said. “We started out great against Cy Ranch. The first two times we had the ball we scored and we had them 14-0. And then we had a turnover in the kicking game, and from that point on it went the other way for a couple of quarters.
“But that showed us what we’re capable of doing.”
Clayton said they’re executing and playing in rhythm about one out of every three series right now, which is keeping them from widening the point differential. He’s also looking for better pass defense.
He’s hoping to find it all this week in another big test against Memorial.
The Mustangs are 0-2, but they’ve fallen to two highly ranked opponents in Stratford (34-7) and Pearland (29-7).
The former district foes meet at 6 p.m. Saturday at Tully Stadium.
“I look for them to be typical Memorial – wellcoached and a hard-playing group of kids,” Clayton said. “They’re going to play from whistle to whistle and get after you the whole ballgame.”