Some wins come easy and some are difficult. The Cass Colonels found themselves on the latter on Friday night. The Colonels beat the visiting Temple Tigers 17-14 on Friday night to move to 4-0 on the season.
The Colonel defense had its hands full with Tiger running back Phillip Johnson, who helped move Temple down the field on its opening drive to take a 7-0 lead.
Remember that name because Cass head coach Steve Gates is certain to have nightmares about it.
The Cass offense sputtered and stalled early, but was finally able to get on the scoreboard with a long field goal from Kaleb Speights. And then the offense found some momentum. Devin Henderson scored on a 14-yard quarterback keeper to give Cass a 10-7 lead. Zay Jackson scored in the second quarter to give Cass a 17-7 lead.
Then Phillip Johnson busted a 55-yard run before the half to once again make it a 3-point game with just under two minutes left in the half.
In the second half, both defenses made adjustments and both offenses struggled to find consistency. But still, Johnson was able to get his and then some. Johnson carried the ball and gained yards on every Tiger drive, but Temple had a tough time moving forward in Cass territory. Cass, likewise, had trouble moving the ball in Temple territory.
It seemed that every time the Colonels would catch some momentum, something irregular, and at sometimes even bizarre, would occur to stunt the drive. But when push came to shove, the team would bend but never break. That was apparent when Temple was inside the Cass red zone but could not push the ball in the end zone. The Colonels forced a 4th down and a 40-yard field goal that Temple would need to tie.
It couldn’t. The Colonels would run on the clock and look up at 17-14 win and know that every bit of it was earned.
Cass will travel to Ridegland next Friday night for a 7:30 kickoff.