High School Football

Cinco Ranch dominant in bi-district win over George Ranch

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 11/12/22

“We’ve been balanced all year and on a night like tonight that pays off for you to not be one dimensional," Dudley said. "I’m just really proud of the guys up front for opening up those holes and getting us what we needed to when we ran the ball.”

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High School Football

Cinco Ranch dominant in bi-district win over George Ranch

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Cinco Ranch had a plan heading into their game on Friday night.

The conditions were rainy and windy, and the Cougars knew that to be successful, they would need to pound the rock.

Cinco Ranch did exactly that on Friday night at Rhodes Stadium, using a forceful run game to down George Ranch 49-14 and clinch a spot in the area round for the second straight season.

“It gets everybody really excited when that’s the gameplan,” said senior running back Sam McKnight. “Me, Eric (Eckstrom) the offensive line, we hear we want to pound the ball and it just lights our faces up. You can see the line just working in the trenches on every single play, playing aggressive and making holes and they just make those big plays possible, it’s awesome.”

George Ranch started the game with a 3-and-out, and the Cinco offense went right to work driving the ball down the field on run plays and scoring on a 14-yard run by McKnight, McKnight added a second touchdown just under a minute later on an 11-yard run and a third in the second quarter on a 14-yard run as the Cougars continued to grow their lead.

“We didn’t want the conditions to affect how we came out, but we knew that the run game was going to be important for us tonight,” said Cinco Ranch head coach Chris Dudley. “We’ve been balanced all year and on a night like tonight that pays off for you to not be one dimensional. I’m just really proud of the guys up front for opening up those holes and getting us what we needed to when we ran the ball.”

Cinco continued to add to the lead in the first half, with Gavin Rutherford throwing a 15-yard touchdown to Fischer Reed and went into a locker room up 35-0, but as impressive as the offense was, it was the defense that stepped up just as much if not more, shutting out George Ranch and only giving up 14 points in the entire game.

“Having this type of game just continues to boost our confidence, we know we can play like this we just have to be able to do it consistently,” said senior linebacker Braden Williams, who became the career sack record holder at Cinco Ranch on Friday. “It’s just even better now, we’re as confident as we have been all season. We know what we’re capable, now we just need to finish out a game and get a shutout on somebody.”

George Ranch got on the board late in the third quarter, but Cinco answered back, driving down the field and scoring on a 20-yard pass from Rutherford to Seth Salverino, and Cinco and George Ranch traded one more set of scores with backups in.

“It’s big and that’s a big reason we run the ball about half the time,” Dudley said. “When you can be effective running it half the time and throwing it half the time it puts a lot of pressure on defenses and allows you to get in a rhythm offensively and we’ve really been able to do that well over the past two weeks.”

Cinco Ranch moves on to play Cy-Fair in the area round, 7 p.m. Friday at Pridgeon Stadium. Cy-Fair is a formidable foe which has won 10 straight games since a season opening loss to Bridgeland, but despite that, the Cougars remain confident that they can make it to the regional quarterfinals for the second straight season.

“They have a really good team, good quarterback and good skill kids and they’re the typical hard-nosed Cy-Fair that you always see,” Dudley said. “They’re a gritty tough bunch abnd it’s going to be a fun, tough game, we’re looking forward to it.”

Cinco Ranch 49, George Ranch 14

George Ranch

0

0

7

7

 --

14

Cinco Ranch

14

21

7

7

--

49

First quarter

CR: Sam McKnight 14 run (Jac McCall run ) 8:50

CR: McKnight 11 run (pass failed) 7:53

Second quarter

CR: McKnight 14 run (Santiago Taborda kick) 8:36

CR: Gavin Rutherford 25 pass to Colten Michalec (Taborda kick) 5:10

Third quarter

GR: Jaden Shelton 4 run (David Michel kick) 3:33

CR: Gavin Rutherford 20 pass to Seth Salverino (Taborda kick) 1:50

Fourth quarter

GR: Shelton.3 run (Michel kick)

CR: Brandon Arroyave 14 run (Taborda kick) 0:57

Team stats

George Ranch

Cinco Ranch

  First downs

8

22

  Yards rushing

32-97

29-210

  Yards passing

99

173

  Passes

8-22-0-0

11-17-3-0

  Punts

5-33

1-45

  Fumbles-lost

2-1

1-1

  Penalty-yards

5-30

4-35

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Cinco Ranch: Sam McKnight, 12-106-3; Eric Eckstrom, 5-60; Brandon Arroyave, 3-20-1; Noah Abboud, 1-19; Jack McCall, 3-10; Javon Randle, 1-2; Gavin Rutherford, 4-(-7); George Ranch: Jaden Shelton, 20-86-2; Deion Drinkard, 10-11; Hayden Drinkard, 2-0;

Passing – Cinco Ranch: Gavin Rutherford, 11-16-173-3-0; Jack McCall, 0-1-0-0-0; George Ranch: Deion Drinkard, 8-21-99;

Receiving – Cinco Ranch: Fischer Reed, 5-51-1; Colten Michalec, 2-50-1; Seth Salverino, 3-47-1; Eric Eckstrom, 1-25 ; George Ranch: Gregor Jones, 2-44; Russell Franklin, 3-22; Jackson Muchelroy, 1-19; Jaden Shelton, 1-8; Bruce Odum, 1-6;

Katy ISD, Cinco Ranch, George Ranch, playoffs, bi-district, football