It was a long road back for Charlie Adamoli to get back on the football field.

The senior quarterback suffered a broken leg in the second game of last year’s season and went through a big process on his way back to regaining the starting spot for Cinco Ranch with his work over the summer and fall.

Adamoli didn’t miss a beat in his first game action back on Saturday in Cinco Ranch’s season opener, throwing for 199 yards and accounting for two touchdowns, and while the game ended in a 49-22 loss to the Woodlands, there was still some bright spots to take for the senior who worked so hard just to be in this situation.

“It just feels great to be back with my boys,” Adamoli said. “I know we didn’t get the win tonight, but all of us are locked in. There’s a great chemistry this year and if we just fix a few things we can be a great team. It was awesome to be back out there and now it’s about getting better so we don’t make the same mistakes.”

Cinco came out with a hot start to the game. After a three and out by The Woodlands to start the game, Cinco took the ball down the field and cashed in when Adamoli took a quarterback keeper seven yards for the games opening touchdown. The Woodlands came back with a touchdown to tie things, but the Cougars answered right back again, driving and scoring on a 5-yard pass from Adamoli to Scott Eckel.

The Woodlands though owned the rest of the first half. The Highlanders came back with another scoring drive to tie the game and then took the lead after another touchown drive midway through the second quarter. Cinco had a turnover on downs and fumble on their next two drives, both deep in The Woodlands territory and the Highlanders got the ball back and scored touchdowns both times, going into the half with a 35-14 lead.

“We had a lot of chances to stay in the game today, but we just didn’t do enough over four quarters while they did,” said Cinco Ranch head coach Chris Dudley. “We had the lead or were right there for most of the first half and in the second half we did well in parts. But we had opportunities we couldn’t convert. But it’s also a credit to The Woodlands, they’re talented and well coached and that’s exactly why you want to play them in these games.”

Cinco came out strong to start the second half as well and Tessiah Young trimmed the deficit to 13, but two interceptions and some stalled drives kept Cinco from getting back into game down the stretch, as the Highlanders were able to run away with it in the fourth quarter.

“There’s positives to take after this still, win or lose you learn a lot when you play a team like that,” Eckel said. “But we put ourselves in good positions, we just have to clean things up and keep getting better. We had a couple turnovers and I had a few drops. But that’s ok, we’re going to learn from this, we are going to build off of it and we can be confident because we know we were only a couple plays away from putting up 40 points on a good defense.”

The biggest culprit of the night for the Cougars was the teams run defense. Cinco allowed 249 yards on the ground and gave up a few big plays in the run game that were back breakers.

That will be a point of focus as the Cougars continue their season against Tomball next week and look to bounce back.

“We played a really good team,” Dudley said. “Now it’s about fixing the things we know that we need to and being ready for next week because we play another really good team in Tomball. We think we can be really special on the offensive side of the ball this year, but there’s a lot of stuff we can do better on both sides of the ball and that is what the early season is about.”

The Woodlands 49, Cinco Ranch 22

First quarter

CR: Charlie Adamoli 7 run (Andrew Reagan kick) 7:00

W: Jack Daulton 68 pass to Jackson Bolender (Scott Starzyk kick) 5:43

CR: Adamoli 5 pass to Scott Eckel (Reagan kick) 1:01

Second quarter

W: Daulton 34 run (Starzyk kick) 11:52

W: Daulton 9 run (Starzyk kick) 4:58

W: Bolender 79 run (Starzyk kick) 3:04

W: Daulton 11 pass to Bolender (Starzyk kick)

Third quarter

CR: Tessiah Young 9 run (Gadlin run) 8:35

Fourth quarter

W: Daulton 33 pass to Shane Walker (Starzyk kick) 7:32

W: Cole Carlin 22 interception return (Starzyk kick) 6:39

Team stats

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Cinco Ranch: Tessiah Young, 19-117-1; Marcus Gadlin, 8-17; Charlie Adamoli, 2-(-4)-1; Davis Roup, 1-(-7); The Woodlands: Jacksoon Bolender, 2-83-1; Jack Daulton, 11-82-2; Cody Jordan, 4-56; Lincoln Halsey, 5-28;

Passing – Cinco Ranch: Charlie Adamoli, 17-29-199-1-2; Davis Roup, 2-4-15-0-1; The Woodlands: Jack Daulton, 9-13-187-3-0; Parker Stephenson, 0-1-0-0-0;

Receiving – Cinco Ranch: Scott Eckel, 9-111-1; Drew Tureau, 7-93; Matthew Courtois, 1-10; Tessiah Young, 1-0; Conner Brock, 1-0; The Woodlands: Shane Walker, 5-91-1; Jackson Bolender, 3-83-2; Kimo Kouletsis, 1-13; Cody Jordan, 1-10;