Last year, the Wildcats fell to an offensively gifted Jersey Village 74-73 where neither team seemed to go a drive without scoring, offense or defense. Fast forward about a year and in the same stadium, the same game is being played. Granted this time was a little drastic, nonetheless the game rattled the collective heart of the fans. The Cy Woods Wildcats (1-2 in district) fell 58-46 to the Jersey Village Falcons (1-2 in district) after letting up 28 unanswered points coming out of halftime.

“We have to come together as a team,” senior Trenton Bird said. “There are little holes in the defense that we aren’t filling, and we have to fix them in practice.”

Heading into the half, the Wildcats were up 31-17 and all but had the game to themselves. But Jersey Village seemingly made all the right adjustments to shut down the offense after the break and managed to find themselves in the lead.

“We needed to protect the ball and not turn the ball over,” Coach Curtis Neill said. “We stumbled when we needed to make a play and we just couldn’t make them.”

Midway through the fourth quarter, Quarterback Jacob Kainer who went a fairly accurate 22/31, was injured and backup Brighton Gullickson was forced to step in. The receivers played far better than the previous week against Cy Ridge, but Kainer alone was not enough to win it.

“He is a phenomenal kid and he plays his tail off,” Neill said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the kid and I hope he isn’t hurt too bad, he tweaked his ankle at the end but I think he will be alright.”

Jack Barrientez also did his best to provide for the team with 24 yards on the ground and an additional 116 yards receiving.

“Jack is our warrior,” Neill said. “He is our utility guy and really does it all. He plays some receiver for us and he can come out of the backfield and play every position. He is our guy that we can rally around; we try to find a way to put the ball in his hands.”

Despite a few standout performances on offense, the defense fell apart and passing lanes became super highways for the Falcons receivers. Wide open receivers found the ball every time their quarterback dropped back to pass.

However, passionate play from Myles Wilson kept the defense in it as long as possible with his fumble recoveries and a two-point conversion that he just would not give up on, breaking multiple tackles and diving into the end zone.

“It felt great to try and help my team,” Wilson said. “I gave 212 and did the best I could, we can either fold or we can stick together and keep going through district and pick up a few more wins.”

Cy Woods goes head to head with the Langham Creek Lobos in a Thursday night matchup next week that the Wildcats are looking to make a close game. A quick turnaround from tonight’s game to the next one may prove critical to the success they will be looking for in that game.