Mac dominates LHS, grabs city title

MacArthur burned Lawton High School’s defense for 567 yards total offense Friday as the Highlanders wrapped up another city championship with a 55-21 victory Friday before another good crowd at Cameron Stadium.

The Highlanders rushed for 418 yards and Aivan Locklin completed 8 of 10 passes for 149 more yards and two touchdowns. Mac wound up with 31 first downs.

Marquis Harris led the Mac ground attack with 24 carries for 190 yards and three touchdowns, Locklin carried it nine times for 86 yards, Joziah Thomas gained 68 yards on 12 carries and Connor Claborn carried nine times for 59 yards.

When a team produces those yardage numbers, it’s obvious that the Mac offensive line did a super job.

“Our guys up front really did a good job and our backs ran hard,” Mac coach Brett Manning said. “These last two games (Eisenhower and LHS) we’ve really improved up there as a group. This team has great work ethic; they show up each day and are eager to practice and get better.”

As the game wore on the out-manned LHS lines on both sides of the ball struggled to contend with Mac’s physicality and offensive coordinator Michael Pooschke mixed up his plays well to keep the Wolverines guessing.

That offensive unit has now produced 57 and 55 points in back-to-back games with one more non-district game, that coming on the road Friday against Ponca City, a Class 6AII team that came to Cameron Stadium and sank the Wolverines last season. Mac is having four non-district games due to the fact that Guymon is not playing this year because of low numbers on its roster.

Manning is never one to sidestep a challenge, keeping the series with Elgin and now heading to face a 6AII club in Ponca City.

“We like to have our guys get out there and compete against the best,” Manning said. “I think that people that saw the Elgin game could tell that their lines are really good and I think that helped our guys improve.”

There were some bright spots for the Wolverines as Nate Jones rushed 24 times for 104 yards, Pene Vasiagote made a super catch and run for 63 yards, taking LHS from its own 2-yard-line all the way to the Mac 35 but that drive was stopped by an interception by Mac’s AJ Vaughn.

The intracity contest got off to a lackluster start as the Wolverines threw an interception on the first play of the game as Mac defender Adam Auston read the route perfectly.

But on a 1st-and-5 at the Mac 49, Locklin fumbled and LHS got the recovery by David Qutaishat to set the Wolverines up at the Mac 39. But after two runs by Jones netted just three yards, Mac brought pressure and LHS quarterback Nathan Hawzipta was sacked, forcing a punt. The kick went just 11 yards, giving the Highlanders the ball at its own 34.

That’s when Mac got its offense going, moving 66 yards on eight plays, the TD coming on a 4-yard Harris run. Another quick stop by the Mac defense and a 38-yard punt left the Highlanders at their own 32. On the first play Locklin dropped back with great protection and fired a strike to Josh Rushing who moved the ball to the LHS 19.

Three carries and Harris was in the end zone for his second score with 4:50 still left in the first quarter.

After LHS used a fair catch on the kickoff, the Wolverines moved 68 yards to score on 16 plays, Jones getting the TD on a 1-yard-run with 11:32 left in the first half. That made it 14-7 Mac and LHS fans had something to cheer about.

But the Highlanders quickly regained the momentum, moving 65 yards on eight plays with Harris getting the final 20 on a nice run over the left side of the line and a great cut to open turf for a 21-7 lead.

Then came another sluggish stint as a fumble gave Mac the ball just 40 yards from paydirt. But the Highlanders bogged down and on 4th-and 4 they ran a fake field goal but LHS got the stop and tried to move on offense but Vaughn got his second interception of the game and the Mac offense wasted little time scoring.

This time it was Locklin getting around the left side and racing 32 yards to score and arrange a 27-7 halftime lead.

If there was any doubt of the outcome at the break, Mac raced 77 yards on eight plays with Locklin finding Rushing wide open for the score as the lead soared to 34-7 and that pretty much wrapped up the win.

Mac later added a 46-yard TD pass from Locklin to Kenyon Gabriel, another Thomas TD run and a scoring run from Conner Claborn.

LHS did score twice more with Jones getting one TD and Pene Vasiagota another on a nice 31-yard run.