Coconut Creek weathers the storm and crushes Piper to improve to 2-0

After a nearly two-hour weather delay, the lightning finally cleared out of Coconut Creek.

But the thunder? The Cougars brought that all night.

A devastating ground game, an opportunistic defense, and an impressive second half from sophomore quarterback Josiah Sanchious were way too much for Piper to handle in the Cougars’ soggy 33-6 home victory over the Bengals Friday night.

And Creek rocked Piper despite practicing just once all week – thanks to the very same South Florida summer weather that backed up Friday’s start time.

“We got a bunch of guys that are buying into this program,” said Cougars coach Chris Yeargin. “When you buy in, it makes it easy for us to execute and dominate like we did today. So, yeah, we only got one practice in, but this South Florida. We’re good with that.”

Good? The Cougars might be more than that. With the win, Coconut Creek improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2022.

Piper, meanwhile, has lost as many games through two weeks as they did all of last year – two.

There’s no doubt that Coconut Creek is much improved over 2024. But after early season wins over Miramar and a Piper team in transition, the Cougars still could have some doubters.

They will have a chance to prove they’re for real next weekend with a trip to Western, which is on a bye this week after a season-opening shutout loss to Plantation.

With Jordan Thompson and Cayden Delions in the backfield, and Everett Butler catching passes from Sanchious – who threw two for touchdowns despite not even playing in the first half – consider the Wildcats officially on notice.

“We got our guys,” Yeargin added. “We didn’t have a lot of transfers. Last year, we had about 27 of them. This year, I think we’ve got three. So we’re a grassroot program. We get the kid that’s in our JV program, and we just build them up. And that’s why we’re so successful right now.”

It should be considered a success that these teams simply got to kickoff.

A severe thunderstorm rolled through the area about a half-hour before the scheduled 7 p.m. start. After a lengthy delay – and just ahead of the county’s 9 p.m. deadline to kick off -- administrators finally gave the green light.

But with more weather potentially on the way, just because the game started there was no guarantee it would finish. There was another band of storms on the horizon, and the next delay likely would have been the night’s last.

Fortunately for the Cougars, they got it in.

Coconut Creek opened the evening’s scoring with a 10-play, 62-yard drive that was pure power. The two-headed monster of Delions and Thompson punished an overmatched Bengals defensive front, with Delions putting the Cougars ahead early with a seven-yard touchdown jaunt.

Piper’s freight train junior back Jahnard Young tied it up on the ensuing drive, getting his number called on five of the Bengals’ 10-play touchdown drive.

He popped off runs of 12, 18, and 19 yards on the drive, tying the game with the last of those three carries.

And Piper actually had a chance to take the lead into the half, but freshman quarterback Maks Stuber – the Bengals starter with Cristian Mata lost to graduation -- saw the ball slip out of his hand on the wrong side of the 50.

Creek made Stuber pay. Arron Power, who go the start for the Cougars at quarterback, connected with a wide-open Thompson on fourth down for an 18-yard touchdown strike to give Creek a 12-6 halftime edge.

That lead would only grow after the break.

Delions broke the game open early in the third when he went 68 yards to the end zone untouched. But Yeargin wasn’t content to sit on the lead. He let Sanchious open it up, and the young QB didn’t waste the chance. He connected with Butler on two touchdown passes, including a 44-yard bomb that was a thing of beauty.

“We got the best two-headed backs in the state,” Yeargin said. “They’re really dynamic.”

The same can be said, it seems, for Yeargin’s team as a whole.