Remove the Sting: Yoemen look to heal wounds at Academy

Since dropping to 3A (then 2A) back in 2010, must-win situations for Cameron in district play have been far and few between. There has never been a must-win situation versus the Academy Bumblebees. Those are the surprising circumstances that the Yoemen (2-6/1-3) find themselves in this Friday night when they hit the road to take on the Bees (3-4/1-2).

Cameron has struggled throughout most of this 2017 season, and the Bees have been in the same boat much of the way. Academy's lone district win was a tight one over winless Jarrell, 20-14. Loses in 10-3A have come at the hands of Rockdale (49-14) and Troy (16-0).

Non-district results include wins over Rogers (7-6) and Goldthwaite (21-15) and loses to Whitney (36-17) and Comanche (34-6). Academy did finish 4-6 in 2016 and missed out on the playoffs for the first time since 2013.

Cameron and Academy played their first ever game against each other back in 2010 when they entered the same district, and have played every year since that point. Cameron has never lost to Academy and the closest game was back in 2011 when the Yoemen pulled out a 34-17 victory.

Academy returned just over half of their team from last season, with six coming back on each side of the ball.

The defensive side of the ball appears to be the main strength of this team with just over 24 points given up per ball game. LB Caden Costa will be the top playmaker to keep an eye on Friday night. The senior totaled 134 tackles a season ago. Chad Petska is the top returning tackler from the defensive line.

It has been a struggle for an offense that has averaged just over 12 points per ball game. Academy will operate out of the I-formation, much like they have over recent years, and will try to beat you up front with the power ground game. So far that has not translated to much in terms of points.

Playoff Tiebreaker

Cameron does still have total control over making the playoffs at this point. Firstly, a win over Academy, followed by a win over Troy is a must. The key will be beating Troy by 7 or more. The points become important if Troy would somehow turn around and beat McGregor and force a three-way tie for third place. A win over Troy by 7 would guarantee the fourth place spot. However, anything less could result in Cameron being the odd man out if things played out perfectly.

For instance, if Cameron were to beat Troy by 3, they would sit at -3 (6 point loss to McGregor) overall. If Troy were to beat McGregor by three, they would be at 0 and McGregor would be +3  

(6 point win over Cameron and 3 point loss to Troy). In that scenario, McGregor would be third, Troy would be fourth and Cameron would be fifth. The cap on each game is 14 points.

If Cameron were to beat Troy by 14, that would move them to +8. If Troy would beat McGregor by any amount of points, Cameron would then be third. This is assuming that no one upsets Rockdale or Franklin during the final few weeks of the season.

Snapshot Day Friday

The bi-annual snapshot day for the UIL realignment will take place on Friday. Cameron sat at 452 enrollment at this very time two years ago, but has shown growth at the high school level the past few years. The latest figure from this past week had Cameron at around 490. The cut off for 3A division I (Cameron’s current division) to 4A DII was 479 the last go around. The good news is that number tends to rise each alignment.

In 2016, the ceiling went up 15 students from 464 to the current 479. If that were to happen again, Cameron would more than likely stay down unless there was a very unusual rise in students in just a few days time.

A recent projection had the cutoff number being 489. Regardless, Cameron will be squarely on the bubble for either staying down or moving up. We will know more about where the Yoemen stand when the actual conference cutoff numbers are released next month. Two years ago, those numbers were released on November 20. The actual districts will be released later in February.