Elgin nips MWC for 5A-1 title, Mac third

Elgin claimed its first district title since 1986 with a 13-3 victory over Midwest City Friday giving the Owls a 10-0 season record and an opportunity to host two playoff games if they win the first one.

That game will be Friday and the opponent will be Piedmont which battled No. 1-ranked Carl Albert on even terms for a half before the Titans took charge.

One of those games running late was at Cameron Stadium where MacArthur was trying to punch its playoff ticket by beating Noble. While the Highlanders won their game, 68-26, they needed help from the Owls and a missed extra point by Elgin wound up knocking Mac down to third in District 5A-1 and sending it to on the road to Guthrie for the first round of the playoffs.

The Elgin-MWC battle was an old-fashioned defensive struggle as the Owls held the Bombers to a lone field goal that came with 9:19 left in the second quarter to make it a 7-3 game.

The first Elgin score was a dandy as big Shay Spencer intercepted a MWC pass and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown at the 6:15 mark of the first quarter. Gabe Dittmeyer tacked on the PAT.

After the teams traded a couple of punts, Elgin got the ball back after a short MWC punt and immediately went to work. The Owls earned one first down to the MWC 8-yard line and then went to the air to penetrate the tough Bombers’ defense.

Quarterback Tres Lorah made a good fake and found a wide-open Colyn Donnelly in the left flat, got him the ball and the talented senior got into the end zone with 25 seconds left in the half. The Owls set up for the PAT kick but the snap was high and Lorah tried to find a receiver but to no avail.

The missed PAT was heard with a big groan at Cameron Stadium as the Highlanders needed a combination of plus-26 from the Owls and Highlanders and it wound up being plus-25 in the OSSAA playoff points system.

After that the Owls did what they had to do, making some adjustments on offense and finally opening some holes for Matthew Lund who had little success in the first half but eventually wound up with 170 yards.

“They were really crowding the box and trying to stop the run,” Elgin coach Chalmer Wyatt said. “I think we were able to wear them down a little; it was a war of attrition there in the second half. I think when I see the video the offensive line did a pretty good job against all those guys they had in the box.”

The Owls struggled at times to throw the ball.

“We missed a few throws and we had a couple of big drops,” Wyatt said. “We make a couple of those completions and I think we would have gotten rolling a little better on offense. They did bring a good deal of pressure on Tres (QB Lorah) and he had to rush a few throws.”

The rest of the time the Elgin defense was making stop after stop and most often it was linebacker Donnelly coming up with numerous big hits to lead the way. And the versatile player also boomed some big punts, including one that was downed at the 1-yard-line and another inside the 10-yard-line.

“Collyn just has such great instincts,” Wyatt said. “He is a very physical player and he just kept making big plays. And then he really made a difference with his punts.”

Two big stops came on the first two MWC possessions of the second half. Ritson Meyer was in on a big 4th-down stop on that series and then on the next one Jack Angelly had a big stop to force a 4th-and-goal from the Elgin 2-yard-line.

The Bombers never got a chance to run the play as a bad snap sent the ball well upfield where it was downed by the MWC quarterback and Elgin took over at the 18.

Later in the game the Bombers got conservative, knowing that the 10-point margin was working in their favor and they didn’t figure they could score twice so they held their final two timeouts in their pocket and accepted the second-place finish.