High School Football

Cinco Ranch shows prowess in all three phases in win over Mayde Creek

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 10/1/22

That wasn’t us, that’s not who we are," Johnson said. "The offense picked us right back up and we had a long week of preparation this week. We wanted to come back and show everyone what this Cougars defense is because we did not perform to the best of our abilities last week.”

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High School Football

Cinco Ranch shows prowess in all three phases in win over Mayde Creek

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The Cinco Ranch defense was angry after last week.

The Cougars offense did everything to survive in the teams loss to Morton Ranch, but the Cougars defense was unable to come away with stops the entire night in the loss.

A night like that can be the turning point of a season, a moment where an offense and defense splinters and turns against each other, where a team can allow a toxic environment in.

But the culture inside the Cougars locker room didn’t allow for that, not with the goals that they have this year, not with the talent they have and not with how much the players and coaching staff care for each other.

Instead of dividing the locker room, that loss brought the team together, and made the players want to fight for each other even more.

“It was a long week of Saturday practice after that loss,” said junior cornerback Taytum Johnson. “We went straight to work because we know, that wasn’t us, that’s not who we are. The offense picked us right back up and we had a long week of preparation this week. We wanted to come back and show everyone what this Cougars defense is because we did not perform to the best of our abilities last week.”

The Cinco Ranch did exactly what it set out to do this week on Friday at Legacy Stadium, as the Cougars held Mayde Creek to under 170 yards of offense and forced two turnovers in a 65-7 win on homecoming night.

“We really challenged the kids mentally to turn the page from last week. They know it’s not acceptable what we did on the defensive side of the ball last week, they recognized that and they answered the call all week in practice,” said Cinco Ranch head coach Chris Dudley. “The biggest thing for us is to handle hard better. You can’t wait for things to get easier, because they won’t. They stepped up to the challenge and I’m proud of what they did tonight.”

Cinco answered the call from the start of the game, as the Cougars ran a trick play on the opening kickoff return, as an upback took a short kick and pitched it back to Noah Abboud, who ran in a 70-yard touchdown for a score to get the Cougars on the board. The defense then stepped up, as Johnson made an interception and the Cinco offense capitalized on it, with Sam McKnight running in a 1-yard score as the Cougars took a two-possession lead in the first quarter.

From there, Cinco just continued to create distance between themselves and the Rams. Gavin Rutherford threw a 33-yard touchdown to Seth Salverino early in the second quarter before McKnight ran in another score. Eric Eckstrom then ran in a touchdown of his own before Rutherford threw a touchdown pass to Fischer Reed and Santiago Taborda nailed a 36-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter.

“It wasn’t just winning, but the way we won meant a lot today,” Salverino said. “Last week was a tough loss, so for us to bounce back and respond was important. Now we just need to use this win to carry us forward through the rest of the season.”

Taborda added two more field goals, one in the third and one in the fourth quarter of 46 and 47 yards while McKnight ran in another touchdown. With the backups in in the fourth quarter Cinco got one more touchdown before Tavious Mitchell kept things from being a shutout by scoring on a 14-yard run for Mayde Creek.

“We invest time in that area of the ball, we don’t just spend time there and Santiago really is the epitome of that,” Dudley said. “Santiago is a really great weapon, last week he executed two perfect onside kicks, this week he hit two long field goals. To have a kid who we know we can get three points from in a good chunk of the field is big, and then he’s really good on extra points and kickoffs to. He’s a great weapon to have on a team.”

The Cougars may have gotten back on track, but they know how important it is to take things one week at a time. Up next for Cinco is Jordan, a team that had started District 19-6A play strongly before their loss to Katy this week, and Cinco knows that they cannot underestimate an opponent.

Cinco Ranch 65, Mayde Creek 7              

Mayde Creek

0

0

0

7

 --

7

 

Cinco Ranch

14

31

10

10

 --

65

First quarter

CR: Noah Abboud 70 kickoff return (Santiago Taborda kick) 11:46

CR: Sam McKnight 1 run (Taborda kick) 1:38

Second quarter

CR: Gavin Rutherford 33 pass to Seth Salverino (Taborda kick) 10:08

CR: McKnight 1 run (Taborda kick) 5:20

CR: Eric Eckstron 7 run (Taborda kick) 3:39

CR: Rutherford 21 pass to Fischer Reed (Taborda kick) 1:48

CR: Taborda 36 field goal, 0:00

Third quarter

CR: McKnight 1 run (Taborda kick) 8:14

CR: Taborda 46 field goal, 2:45

Fourth quarter

CR: Taborda 47 field goal, 11:49

CR: Brandon Arroyave 3 run (Taborda kick) 8:24

MC: Tabious Mitchell 14 run (Jacob Campos kick) 4:48

Team stats

Mayde Creek

Cinco Ranch

  First downs

8

20

  Yards rushing

20-73

33-254

  Yards passing

95

225

  Passes

11-28-0-1

18-26-2-0

  Punts

4-29

0-0

  Fumbles-lost

2-1

1-1

  Penalty-yards

5-50

6-67

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Cinco Ranch: Brandon Arroyave, 7-84-1; Sam McKnight, 17-80-3; Eric Eckstrom, 7-53-1; Gavin Rutherford, 8-23; Tristan Davis, 4-13; Jack McCall, 1-1; Mayde Creek: Jerimiah Hill, 10-61; Tavious Mitchell, 7-28-1; Eric Nelson, 1-(-5); Reggie McNeal Jr., 2-(-11);

Passing – Cinco Ranch: Gavin Rutherford, 16-23-206-2-0; Jack McCall, 2-3-19-0-0; Mayde Creek: Carldell Beard, 6-20-51-0-1; Reggie McNeal, 4-7-0-0-0; Beau Bankston, 1-1-44-0-0

Receiving – Cinco Ranch: Seth Salverino, 3-80-1; Fischer Reed, 6-65-1; Aadi Patel, 6-56; Coleson Harry, 2-24; Mayde Creek: Marvin Bodden, 1-44; Beau Bankston, 6-28; Jerimiah Hill, 3-21; Eric Nelson, 1-2;

“We got a win, but just like last week with the loss, now we put this in our back pocket and we move on to the next one against Jordan,” Taytum said. “You have to take things one game at a time, there’s no weeks off in this district.”

Katy ISD, Cinco Ranch, Mayde Creek, sports, football