Cy Ridge falls to Cinco Ranch, ending a historic season | From the K. Cook Archive

Originally published by The Associated Press (December 4, 2016)

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Cy Ridge head coach Gary Thiebaud said in the spring that the Rams had something to prove.

The Rams, built around a veteran core of talent that began to show signs of exceptional ability and drive as freshmen, overcame a two-year drought in the playoffs, finishing third in 17–6A but outlasting the other three Cy-Fair ISD playoff teams, finishing the season in the regional finals with a 34–17 loss to Cinco Ranch at TDECU Stadium Saturday.

Not only did the Rams survive and advance further than any of its district rivals, they pushed the program further and higher than it had ever been before.

With Russell Shepard, now of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, at the helm in 2007 and 2008, the Rams advanced to the third round, falling to Hightower and Copperas Cove, respectively.

Never, since the school opened in 2002 and varsity football commenced in 2004, had the Rams competed for a region title.

What did the Rams prove this season? Simply that they are the most accomplished team to ever come through Cypress Ridge High School.

The game

The contest started auspiciously, with junior defensive end Melik Owens recovering a fumble on the first play from scrimmage, setting the Rams up with a very short field. But signs of what the game would become were visible early, as the Cinco Ranch Cougars held Cy Ridge to a 22-yard field goal from senior kicker Adrian Martinez after the Rams had first and goal to go from Cinco Ranch’s six-yard line.

The Rams would ultimately wind up losing the turnover battle 4–2, mirroring the 34–17 discrepancy in the final score.

Thiebaud pointed to a plethora of atypical mistakes his team made against the Cougars in assessing the loss.

“We weren’t as sharp offensively as we’ve been,” Thiebaud said. “They’re a great football team over there. Good job on their part. We had some opportunities. But we had some picks, we had a fumble, we got a punt blocked, we gave up a big return. You’re not going to win ball games doing that. We just made some mistakes today that we hadn’t been making against a good football team.”

Perhaps the most atypical facet of the game for the Rams was the lack of rushing production. Senior rusher and likely two-time Offensive MVP (pending the All-District selections for 2016) Trelon Smith sat out the game after suffering an injury against Clear Brook last week, and the Rams averaged only 2.6 yards per carry on the day without him.

But to point to the loss of Trelon as the cause of the ground-game woes is oversimplifying, said Thiebaud, and gives too little credit to the rest of the squad.

“We’re not making that an issue,” Thiebaud said. “We’re not a one-man show. We have good players from the rest of our backs to our receivers, our quarterback, offensive line, defense — we’ve got players. We’re not a one-man team and we haven’t been. That’s not the story of this ball game. The story of the ball game is the mistakes we made.”

Good teams are able to take away what their opponents do best, and for the first time this season, Cy Ridge earned more yards passing the ball (119) than rushing (86), another visible sign of how far outside the Rams’ comfort zone the Cougars pushed them.

Senior quarterback Tyson Williams completed half of his 18 passing attempts, with senior wide receiver Kevin LeDee serving as the primary beneficiary, with 74 yards and a touchdown on three receptions, but two of the nine incompletions were interceptions, giving up too much, too consistently to Cinco Ranch’s offense.

Cinco Ranch junior backup quarterback, running back, kick returner and jack-of-all-trades Brant Kuithe was nightmarishly effective Saturday, racking up 276 all-purpose yards, including 136 yards in the kick-return game, 73 yards of which came on one return following a pick-six from Cy Ridge senior defensive back James Froehlich to make it a 20–17 game early in the fourth quarter.

Kuithe’s big return gave Cinco Ranch yet another short field, starting the drive from the Cy Ridge 15-yard line, and he added insult to injury with a 15-yard touchdown rush, his second of the day.

Thiebaud said that the Rams game-planned for Kuithe, but like any good football player, he found other ways to contribute when the Cy Ridge defense took away his primary strength.

“We knew he ran the ball a lot inside, and I don’t think he had many yards running inside,” Thiebaud said. “They bounced out on us a couple of times late, and we just lost containment on him. He’s a good football player.”

Cy Ridge had what it wanted in the game after Froehlich’s heroic pick-six — an opportunity. The Rams allowed Kuithe to push the lead back to 10 points on the subsequent three plays, and that was more or less the game, but for three quarters, the Rams proved that round four was not a fluke, and that they belonged on the field with the state’s best.

The legacy

After analyzing the loss, Thiebaud took a moment to reflect on the character and fortitude of his team.

Thie year’s team was the Cy-Fair ISD version of the Redeem Team, bringing the Cy Ridge program back from two aberrant years of wandering in the non-playoff desert, and in so doing, pushed the school as far as it has ever been.

Thiebaud said that this team, and especially its veteran core of seniors, exhibited signs of being something special early on.

“This football team, from the get-go as freshmen, showed something,” Thiebaud said. “They grew into something special. I think that process that we’ve been on with them was really unique. I watched a locker room change from a bunch of guys to a family, and that was unbelievable.”

Cy Ridge, bucking the convention wisdom about new schools, opened as a success, winning a district title in 2004, its inaugural varsity season, and 2007. The Rams made the playoffs in six of their first seven seasons in an ultra-competitive Cy-Fair district, no mean feat.

Then, due to the vagaries of re-districting and enrollment in an ever-shifting, ever-expanding Cy-Fair ISD scene, the Rams made the playoffs only once in the subsequent five years, in 2013.

In some ways, says Thiebaud, this season is a return to normalcy, to the proud Cy Ridge tradition of competing for district titles (Cy Ridge lost 27–24 to Cy Ranch in a game with 17–6A champion implications) and making noise in the postseason.

“We traditionally are in the playoffs, and we traditionally play for district championships and make some runs in the playoffs,” Thiebaud said. “We’ve had a couple of years where we’ve been up and down because our enrollment changes, and things like that. But we managed to get a group and grow them and build them.”

Thiebaud said that, in what they accomplished and in simply who they were, the Rams this year embodied the character and disposition the school seeks to instill.

“That’s who Cypress Ridge is,” Thiebaud said. “We’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But our kids come to school every day and can get along with each other and work with anybody. They’re goal-oriented and not afraid to work. It’s a special group over there at Cypress Ridge. I’ve been there for a while now, longer than I’ve been anywhere, and I’m so proud of the school, and who we are and what we are and what goes on in our building under our leadership, with Stephanie Meshell.”

While the season has reached its terminus, like all endings it is, in some senses, another new beginning.

“This football program is growing and competitive, and we expect to be here next year,” Thiebaud said. “When we go to work in January in the offseason, that’s what we’re going to talk about.”

Originally published at https://apnews.com on December 4, 2016.