J- Hodge, Knox pull away from Cedar Creek 28- 0 to end regular season
Cedar Creek’s Trigger Woodard (9) looks for running room for the Cougars. CCS ended its season Friday night with a loss to Jonesboro-Hodge. Photo by Darrell James
A rebuilding season ended for the Cedar Creek Cougars at home Friday night.
A redemption season continues for the Jonesboro-Hodge Tigers after a 28-0 victory over CCS.
With the win, J-Hodge clinches a playoff berth in Division IV Nonselect by winning its final three games of the regular season to finish 4-6 (4-2). Creek wraps up the season with a 1-9 (1-5) record.
Entering the game, the Cougars knew they had to contain J-Hodge junior quarterback Dakota Knox, who was coming off a game in which he accounted for nearly 400 yards and 4 touchdowns.
The good news for Creek is they picked Knox off three times Friday, two of those by Case Phillips.
The bad news? Knox still managed to rush for 148 yards and a touchdown and passed for 146 yards and 2 more scores.
The Tigers entered Friday night at No. 19 in the power rankings, hoping to move up enough to host a first round playoff game. They would need to move up to No. 16, but that won’t be determined until the LHSAA releases its playoff brackets.
Unfortunately that has been delayed due to a lawsuit filed against the LHSAA by University Lab School in Baton Rouge stemming from the LHSAA forcing the school to forfeit all of their wins in 2024 due to the use of multiple ineligible players.
On the field, the last thing Cedar Creek needed was to lose one of their key cogs to the offensive engine. That happened in the first quarter when freshman starter Cason Floyd left the game in the first quarter. That forced senior James Myers to play quarterback.
Creek punted on its first possession of the evening, but the Tigers didn’t capitalize. Knox drove them down to the Creek 15 yard line before Phillips stepped in front of a Knox pass in the end zone to thwart the drive.
Three plays later, Floyd was hit and coughed up the football back over to the Tigers.
It took only three plays for Knox to hit Za’mauryian Palmer for a touchdown strike. Knox took it in for the two-point conversion and an 8-0 lead.
The Cougars put together their best drive of the night on their ensuing possession, marching from their own 34 to the J-Hodge 38, keyed by a big 20-yard gain by Myers.
Creek turned the ball over on downs and the Tigers went right back to work. Knox pulled off two big plays — a 17-yard scramble and a 31yard pass to Palmer to give the Tigers a first and goal at the 6 yard line.
After a big sack by Bryce Robinson — which tied the Cedar Creek career record — Knox rallied his offense and connected with Christian Maguire on fourth down for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead. That held up heading into the half.
Cedar Creek received a spark to start the third quarter when Phillips picked off Knox for his second interception of the game, giving Creek the ball at the J-Hodge 41.
Seven straight running plays managed to move the Cougars to the 23 before turning it over on downs again.
Knox was errant again on the next series, this time throwing his third interception to Nolan Martin. The Cougars could’t muster any offense and punted back to the Tigers.
As the fourth quarter began, the Tigers put the game on ice with a 54-yard drive in 6 plays, culminated by a Knox 28-yard touchdown scamper to give the Tigers a 20-0 lead.
J-Hodge added one more score when Landon Boston scored from 18 yards out to end the scoring.
