Elgin starts slow, finishes fast; Apache blanks Ringling

Even the best teams sometimes struggle to execute and that was indeed the case for Elgin in the first half of Friday’s road game at Weatherford.

The Owls led 13-0 at halftime but it was far from a thing of beauty.

“Our problems on offense were all self-inflicted,” Elgin head coach Chalmer Wyatt. “Weatherford wasn’t doing anything we didn’t expect. We just weren’t playing our style of offensive football.”

The Owls dropped passes, missed blocking assignments and were unable to sustain drives in the first 24 minutes.

“Our guys knew they hadn’t played well in the first half and they came out in the third quarter and played the way we wanted,” he said. “We were super happy with their effort in the second half. That is a tribute of a veteran team. They hit the reset button and came out with some fire.”

Elgin scored 23 points in the third quarter to seal the outcome. Quarterback Tres Lorah completed 12-of-21 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns. One went to Brody Morrison for 59 yards and the other went to Michael Adesola from 45 yards.

“The good thing was we had a lead in the first half and our defense was playing lights out,” Wyatt said. “Their big kid (CJ Nickerson) had 3 or 4 catches but we did a good job of containing him. Our defense had a couple of interceptions and we recovered a fumble.”

Wyatt said the Owls will hit the road again this week to face El Reno.

“El Reno is a hard-nosed football team with a talented back,” he said. “Last week Weatherford wanted to throw the football but this will be a different look. El Reno wants to run the ball. Once again our guys need to be ready to go on the road and get off to a good start.”

Elsewhere, there were two outcomes that went the way of area teams as Apache blanked No. 5 Ringling, 26-0, and Marlow beat a highly-ranked Perkins-Tryon team, 27-21, in overtime. The Outlaws got a big effort from senior quarterback Cade Gilbert who helped account for Marlow’s four scores, all of those coming in the second half after the Demons owned a 14-0 cushion at halftime. Gilbert hit Jacob Crowson for a 41-yard TD pass with 4:45 left in the game and then he fired a 22-yard scoring pass to Barron Gage to knot the game with 1:12 remaining.

Perkins-Tryon had a chance to kick a game-winning field goal in regulation but a bad snap led to a blocked kick and the game went to overtime. The Demons got the ball first and appeared to have a TD but a receiver dropped a pass in the end zone on fourth down.

That’s when Gilbert capped a 3-play drive by scoring on a 10-yard run to get the walk-off victory.

The mere fact that Apache beat Ringling was probably not a major surprise but holding the Blue Devils scoreless was a big accomplishment.

“Our defensive line and linebackers really stepped up and had a huge game for us,” Apache coach Tanner Koons said. “They (Blue Devils) want to run the football until you stop them and that’s what we did. Our guys played fast and hard for four quarters. I hope the players take away from this game that they have to play with that same intensity and just trust the process. This should give our defense a good deal of confidence going into district.”

On offense the Warriors got a big night from quarterback Houston Herrin who scored three touchdowns, while Dom Scott added another TD.

“Our O-line really played well,” Koons said. “We made some adjustments for this week but it wasn’t anything fancy. We just gave Houston some checks to make at the line and our O-line did the same thing. All of our players were making plays and executing well.”

The Warriors won’t be able to celebrate long as they open District A-2 action Friday at Mangum which is much improved.

“Mangum is really good,” Koons said. “They are pretty balanced and will air it out when they get a chance.”

For Koons, the win came against his father Phil, who has fielded strong programs at Tuttle and now Ringling.

“We talked briefly after the game but he had his own team to think about,” Tanner said. “I’m sure we will get a chance to talk more this weekend.”

Other scores from Friday included the following 11-man games: Walters 49, Cashion 7; Chickasha 31, Anadarko 8; Empire 50, Healdton 6; Hinton 55, Carnegie 20; Hobart 41, Burns Flat-Dill City 13; and Piedmont 54, Duncan 3.

In eight-man action, Mt. View-Gotebo beat Hollis, 32-14; Ryan beat Central High, 50-0; Shattuck blanked Snyder, 50-0; Tipton shut out Cyril, 46-0; and Waurika beat Grandfield, 54-6.

This week most of the 11-man teams will begin district action with the local game featuring Duncan at MacArthur Friday at Cameron Stadium.

Elsewhere this week Woodward visits Cache; Altus heads to Midwest City; Anadarko makes the long drive to Mannford; Marlow opens district action in Class 3A by hosting Pauls Valley and Frederick has a tough home game against highly-regarded Washington. Comanche heads to Lindsay in another Class 2A district contest.

There are several Class A games this week including Carnegie at Hobart; and Empire at Cordell. Walters has an open date before swinging into A-2 action.

In eight-man action this week Cyril faces a tough test at Hollis; Central High hosts mighty Shattuck; Grandfield is home to face Corn Bible Academy; Mt. View-Gotebo hosts Ryan and Bray-Doyle must go to Don Royal Stadium to face top-ranked Tipton.