Chance for Homecoming excitement
Cedar Creek freshman Micah Taylor (5) runs for a first down against Loyola Prep on Sept. 20. The Cougars are preparing to host Arcadia on Friday. Photo by Darrell James
A down season doesn’t have to end on a dour note for the Cedar Creek Cougars, as head coach William Parkerson hopes two home games to close out the 2024 season is just the motivation his young squad needs.
The two-game stretch starts Friday against the Arcadia Hornets (3-5, 2-3 district) for the Cougars’ Homecoming — with Creek trying to win its first home game since Sept. 29, 2023. Amidst a season that’s mostly seen struggles, with brief success sprinkled in, Parkerson knows if the Cougars can build confidence and establish a strong defense of their home field once again to close the year, it could be the start of something meaningful come next fall.
“The first place you need to win if you’re going to be a consistent and winning team is win at home,” Parkerson said. “We’ll have to do a good job here these next two weeks of defending our home turf to start doing that.
“We need to play our best football these last two weeks and control the things we can control to send these seniors off on a positive note. These guys have worked hard all year. They’ve been bought in. We have to play at a high level these next two games to send them off the right way.”
Creek ( 1- 7, 1- 3 district) will have to improve off last week’s 30-6 loss to Lincoln Prep to get the job done. The Cougars punted seven times for 91 total yards of offense against the Panthers, with James Myers as the bright spot offensively with 51 receiving yards, 14 rushing yards, and a touchdown.
Overall, the Cougars have improved since their winless start, but Parkerson said they won’t be able to get over the final hump until mistakes are corrected in offensive execution, including giving the ball back to the other team.
Creek had 3 turnovers in the loss to Lincoln Prep, putting the team at 22 turnovers on the season to pair with 15 offensive touchdowns.
“We just gotta do a better job of getting consistent execution,” Parkerson said. “We’ll do three or four good things, and then one mess up puts us behind the chains, and we don’t recover. We just gotta be better in that area.”
Arcadia hasn’t exactly been lighting District 1-1A on fire either with three wins against some of the worst teams in the state in Ringgold, Plain Dealing, and Southwood — combining for three wins between them. And the Hornets are in a similar position as Creek with a team getting adjusted to a staff’s standards as firstyear head coach Taylor James Perron tries to lead Arcadia back to relevance.
But it helps having third-year starting quarterback Rodtavious Jackson back at the helm after he had 910 total yards of offense with 12 total touchdowns in 2023, along with running back Bratrevauntae Ferrell who had 471 yards and 5 TDs last year.
Parkerson expects the Hornets to present a solid challenge to the Cougars on both sides of the ball.
But like any game, it comes down to Creek’s own execution and ability to limit Arcadia’s big plays.
“We gotta keep eyes on their quarterback. He’s a good athlete. Most of their big plays are when things break down and he’s able to make a play,” Parkerson said. “They’ve got good athletes at the skill positions. Big offensive line. We’ve gotta tackle well and keep them from doing what they want to do.
“ They’re primarily a four-man defensive front but they’ll go five-man at times. Just like the offensive line, they’ve got a big defensive line. Hopefully, we do a good job reading what they show us, and we can execute like we need to.”
Creek hosts Arcadia Friday at Cougar Field for Homecoming weekend.
