Hurt, Eagles batter Ardmore

When Javon Harris took the reins of Eisenhower’s football program two years ago, his former high school coach at MacArthur, Brett Manning, predicted that given time Harris would put together a winning program.

“Javon was a model student-athlete when he was here at MacAthur,” Manning said before the 2021 season. “He knows the game and brings intensity and total effort into everything he does. I think Ike made a good decision.”

Friday Harris will take his Eagles to Cameron Stadium to face his former coach and this time he brings a formidable team that pounded 5A foe Ardmore Friday, 59-7, to set up an early battle of unbeatens.

MacArthur was also winning with ease on Week Zero, routing John Marshall, 60-6, Thursday at Cameron Stadium. That game was so lopsided that the coaches and officials agreed to a running clock to get the game completed as fast as possible.

The two big wins sets up an interesting “Gore War” which will surely attract another huge crowd.

While the Ike-Mac battle is the feature attraction on Week 1 when a full schedule is planned, there are other good matchups including Lawton High at Duncan, Anadarko at Elgin, Chickasha at Marlow and Altus at Cache.

Other games this week include: Frederick at City View (Texas), Mangum at Comanche, Apache at Rush Springs, Carnegie at Burns Flat, Empire at Paoli, Snyder at Hinton, Walters at Healdton, Seiling at Cyril, Bray-Doyle at Central High, Mt. View-Gotebo at Maysville and Tipton at Alex.

Most of this summer Ike’s Rashaud Hurt was making several top college camps and reports out of those camps was nothing but high praise for the big back.

It took the Ike back one play Friday to show fans why his reputation was growing as he raced 70 yards to score without an Ardmore defender putting a hand on him. His bolt of speed got him around the corner and when he blazed past the stunned Ardmore coaches you could see the concern on their expressions.

“Rashaud is a grinder; he works hard and is the first guy in the fieldhouse and the last to leave,” Ike coach Harris said. “We will celebrate this one for 24 hours and then get right back to work. We have a focus on one game at a time and not overlook any of the small details.”

Clearly the Ike defensive unit has taken on the fire and passion that Harris had while playing at MacArthur and then the University of Oklahoma.

“We knew we had to be assignment based against the flexbone and our kids executed like we had practiced,” Harris said. “We swarmed to the ball and delivered blows time after time. We went into the season wanting to be in better shape than our opponents and I think that was clear tonight.”

On most every play the Tigers were being slowed by cramps, so much so that Ike trainer Meagan Steen got in her workout helping the Tigers battle the cramps. Ike had some issues but nothing close to what the Tigers were dealing with all night.

Of course, chasing Hurt and a parade of younger Ike backs was no easy task. Six different Eagles carried the ball and late in the game they got to enjoy the thrill of scoring.

Ike only had one early drive bog down as three false start penalties forced Harris to call on kicker Connor Duffey to try a 32-yard field goal and he made it for a 10-0 Ike lead with 5:01 left in the first quarter.

On Ike’s next possession the running game bogged down but quarterback Charlie Trachte found tight end Kingston Tito on a 9-yard touchdown pass and Duffey made it 17-0.

Ardmore finally got past midfield but eventually the Ike defense slammed the door and stopped a fourth-down pass attempt.

Offensive Coordinator Jon Willis then called a perfect play, giving Trachte a chance to go deep to Jalen Jones and the result was an 85-yard touchdown strike to make it 24-0 with 2:56 left in the half.

Ike blocked an Ardmore punt late in the third quarter and Hurt needed one play to score from 20 yards out on a great run with an amazing cutback move that left two Tigers grabbing air.

Hurt got his final score on a 30-yard run with 11:21 left in the game and that was it for the talented junior back.

The reserves did the rest with backup QB Devion Bailey hitting Sherri Sheridan for a 27-yard scoring pass and then Rashad Ellzey scored on a nifty 24-yard touchdown run.

The final score was credited to David Baker, one of several freshmen who got to touch the ball and enjoyed success.

“I think it was obvious that our offensive line blocked well,” Harris said. “We came off the ball well and gave our backs room to run. We have to keep improving because there were some mistakes out there.”

Harris meant in part that his Eagles are going to have to work on the penalties as they were called for 14 penalties for 125 yards.

“We have to clean those things up before next week,” Harris said. “But we will learn from that and get better.”