Highlanders have little trouble beating Ponca City

MacArthur dominated on both sides of the ball and left Ponca City scoreless with a win of 40-0. This is the Highlander’s third consecutive win.

Friday night theHighlanders made the near three-hour drive to face class 6A Ponca City for their last non-district matchup of the season. Coming into Friday’s game the Highlanders had a record of 2-1 following their previous win against Lawton High to crown themselves city champs.

Mac’s quarterback Aivan Locklin had three rushing touchdowns on the night along with a couple big plays to set up his teammates. One of those plays came with six seconds to go until halftime.

On first down from Mac’s own 45-yard line, Locklin made a huge throw downfield to receiver Kenyon Gabriel who caught it and was tackled at Ponca City’s five-yard line. With a second left in the half, Locklin scrambled and found Trae Kibble in the corner of the endzone for the touchdown. The following field goal by Miguel Martinez was good to make the score heading into half, MacArthur 19, Ponca City 0.

With a minute passed in the fourth quarter, Joziah Thomas ran the ball over 25 yards to set the Highlanders in scoring position from the two-yard line. Locklin would run the ball in for the touchdown for Mac’s fourth touchdown of the night.

Ponca city had the ball with 9:15 left in the game when Mac’s defense had a huge possession to end the game once and for all.

It started with a sack from linebacker Shaun Hughes that put Ponca City back ten yards. After a minute had gone by on the clock, Darriyon Mosley got an interception to give Mac once last shot at adding to their lead.

With just under five minutes to play, Locklin ran the ball to the endzone from the three-yard line for the last touchdown of the night. The following field goal from Martinez was good, making the final score MacArthur 40, Ponca City 0.

MacArthur now has a record of 3-1 and will take a break next week for the bye. This was the last non-district game for the Highlanders with their first district matchup coming on October fourth at Classen SAS.