Elgin proves whooos best in 4A

EDMOND—Some college students go to the student union to play spades, but not Chalmer Wyatt and Adam Castro. They spent their time sketching football plays on napkins and dreaming what it would be like to win a state championship.

Saturday afternoon their dream came to fruition as Elgin put together a pair of big offensive possessions in the fourth quarter to help the Owls cap a perfect 14-0 season with a 29-22 victory over Tuttle before a huge crowd at Central Oklahoma University’s Chad Richison Stadium.

With hundreds of Elgin fans celebrating on the field, it took some time before the two young coaches were able to find each other and celebrate, their tears mixing with the water from the traditional water bath for the winning coaches as players and families gave the two friends time to relish in their special moment.

“This is what we dreamed about,” Wyatt said as players, parents and fans lined up to congratulate the Elgin alum who finally helped put a gold football trophy in the school’s trophy case.

Castro, who first met Wyatt while taking classes with him at Cameron, was able to celebrate with his family before finding the coach who gave him his big chance to lead the Owls’ offense.

“I’ve never been around a line better than this one,” Castro said. “Our line is so physical that when we needed to get something done in the fourth quarter these guys just took over.

“That group is just so consistent; we counted on them to allow us to move the football when we needed a big drive and they responded. We do what we do; we don’t have to do anything special, just execute and keep pounding it right at them.”

The offensive line includes two NCAA Division I signees, Antoni Ogumoro who is heading to Tennessee and Jace Williams who is heading to Navy. Shay Spencer will land at some DI school while Jackson Deel and Hudson Bagley will return to anchor that unit next season.

The need to run the football came about after Tuttle took the second half kickoff and moved downfield to get into position to take its first lead of the game. The drive moved to the Elgin 21-yard-line before the Owls allowed Tuttle just one yard on three plays, setting up a 4th-and-9.

Tuttle brought on Garrett Ogg who converted a 37-yard field goal to give the Tigers a 22-21 lead with 9:07 left in the third quarter. The field goal was somewhat of a surprise since Ogg had missed two PAT kicks that had allowed Elgin to keep the lead until the third quarter possession.

The game turned into a defensive struggle at that point as both offenses had three possessions which produced not a single first down and six punts.

The sixth of those punts came from the Tigers’ Brady McAdoo and pinned the Owls at their own 7-yard-line with 11:09 remaining.

Workhorse Elgin back Ritson Meyer carried the ball on the next three plays, setting up a 3rd-and-3 from the 14. Meyer got the ball on that key third down, only this time he took a short pass from quarterback Tres Lorah and got eight yards for a first down at the 22.

Castro, the Elgin offensive coordinator, picked the right time to mix things up, giving the ball to sophomore Braxten Antuna on an inside handoff and he got around the corner and raced to the Tuttle 30.

Elgin was unable to get any movement on the next two plays and faced a 3rd-and-11 from the 31.

Lorah dropped back, got good protection and had time to allow tight end Adam Eaton time to run a drag route and the tall receiver raced to the Tuttle 10-yard-line for a big first down.

Meyer did the rest, getting six yards on first down and scoring on the second play with 6:24 remaining. Castro and Wyatt cooked up a perfect 2-point PAT play, rolling Lorah out on a bootleg and throwing back to the left to a wide-open tight end Colyn Donnelly for a 29-22 Elgin lead.

Then the defense had to take over, especially after the Tigers had a good kickoff return to set them up at their own 41-yard-line. The Owls shut down Shawn Roundsaville for no gain on first down then defensive coordinator Jack Baker dialed up a strong pass rush that led to three straight incompletions and forced a 4th-and-10, still at the Tuttle 41.

Another good McAdoo punt left the Owls at their own 7-yard-line with 5:08 remaining and everyone in the stadium knew what to expect; more Meyer runs.

Meyer got 13 on the second play for a first down and Antuna bolted around left end for 16 more and a first down at the 36-yard-line as the Tigers started using their three timeouts.

The Tigers used their third timeout before a 2nd-and-7 play and when Meyer hurdled a Tuttle defender, the big junior had gained 13 yards and a first down with 2:15 remaining and the Elgin crowd started getting even louder as fans sensed that victory was within sight.

A false start penalty put Elgin in a 2nd-and-15 with 1:28 remaining but two more runs cleared the clock and the Owls raced onto the field to celebrate.

“Running behind our line is special,” Meyer said. “We could see that we were starting to wear their defense down and when that happens it just makes us want to keep running the ball.

“I really felt good and the more I ran the ball the better I felt. When you have a line like the one we have, it makes it nice to just keep running and making plays. I felt stronger the more I ran the ball today.”

Meyer finished with 227 yards on 42 carries, a 5.4 average per carry against a good Tuttle defense. Meyer also caught a pair of passes for 49 yards and he had 21 yards on kickoff returns.

The Owls seemed en route to taking complete command early, driving 80 yards with the opening kickoff and scoring on a 4-yard Meyer touchdown. Aidan Delgado booted the PAT.

An interception by Josh Adesola set the Owls up 37 yards from paydirt and Lorah fired a 30-yard TD pass to Brody Morrison for the TD on the second play of that drive.

The Owls were marching toward another possible score at the Tuttle 27 but a bad handoff allowed Tuttle to recover a fumble and the Tigers scored just five plays later to make it 14-7 and steal momentum from the Owls.

The Tigers got even closer with an 80-yard TD march capped by a McAdoo 3-yard run but Tuttle missed the PAT and Elgin clung to a 14-13 lead.

The lead quickly grew when the Owls moved 80 yards to score with the big play being a wheel route to Meyer that covered 41 yards to the Tuttle 4-yard-line. Meyer scored two plays late for a 21-13 lead.

A couple of blown coverages allowed Tuttle to get closer on its final series of the first half, moving 77 yards in just 56 seconds to score with 1:02 left in the half. Another missed PAT left it 21-19 at halftime.

Lorah completed 9-of-17 passes for 143 yards and one touchdown.

“In the second half we could sense that our line was starting to wear their defensive line down and the coaches said we’re just going to keep running the ball and taking time off the clock,” Lorah said. “This is what we’ve been working to accomplish and it feels good to bring this gold ball back to Elgin.”