Before the season began, Clear Creek football was optimistic about their chances this year to go to the postseason. Then Kingwood blew the Wildcats out at home 28-6 on Thursday, Aug. 25 to absolutely crush the hopes that Clear Creek had for now, at least.

There was good reason for optimism this year, since this group is young, energetic, and has a lot of potential.

“The biggest thing that we can improve on from the Kingwood game is fixing some little mistakes that we made as a team and led to us not performing as well as we know we are capable of,” Coach Norman said.

The Wildcats also stumbled in terms of teamwork and communication, which hurt their defensive capabilities, because if you cannot read the signals and communicate, the outcome is grim.

“We are working on getting a lot of reps in practice and making sure that everyone knows their assignments for this week,” Coach Norman said. “We are also working on coming together as a team and trusting each other. If we can trust that our teammates will do their job than we can focus on doing our own individual job more effectively.”

After Kingwood, at the half-full Veteran’s Memorial stadium was buzzed with energy, yet Deer Park beat the Clear Creek Wildcats handily, 33-14 on Friday, Sept. 2. This game was a game that Creek would like to forget, but they got outmatched in the lineman matchup due to their lack of size and power against Deer Park’s sturdy offensive line.

“We’re playing better, but we’re making too many mental mistakes. We’ve been practicing all week on minimizing these mistakes,” Coach Dwayne Lane said.

Senior Rocky Ketchum stood out for the Wildcats with his powerful running, carrying the offense throughout the first half, but a 64-yard touchdown pass by junior Bryson Drake to sophomore Walker Hurst and junior Dre Ketchum’s Kickoff returned for a touchdown showing Clear Creek’s offense. Deer Park on the other hand had a powerful offensive line that allowed them move over the Creek defensive line and score 23 points in the first half. Creek made solid adjustments in the second half that allowed them to outscore the Deer 14-10, but it wasn’t enough.

The Wildcats will be playing for the first time away from home on Sept. 9 as the Clear Creek Wildcats travel to Channelview to take on the Falcons. Despite the results being less than ideal, there is still a lot of hope left for the Wildcat team.

“Every time we faced Channelview, it’s always a close game,” Lane said. “I think we’re both evenly matched, and you’re going to see a really good game of football.”