LHS gets fast start, decks Northwest crew

Lawton High School has been hit with a rash of injuries to five starters and it’s played a tough schedule, so when the Wolverines hosted district foe Northwest Classen Thursday night the main goal was just earn a win.

While the Wolverines did just that with a 55-26 victory, what they had hoped would be uneventful second half didn’t turn out as the pesky Knights took advantage of some sloppy LHS tackling to throw for 300 yards and make the Wolverines keep producing points to make sure they got their 15-point win in case there are ties for playoff position at the end of the season.

“Our inability to get off the field on defense ruined what we hoped would be an uneventful second half,” LHS Head Coach Ryan Breeze said. “We missed a bunch of tackles and we have to get that corrected. But with all these injuries and a tough schedule, we just needed a win and we got that.”

In the first half it was all Wolverines as they scored on five of their first six possessions to build a 35-0 lead.

Nate Jones got the first score on a 3-yard run after Pene Vasiagote had hit Marcus Rucker on a 35-yard pass to set LHS up deep in Northwest Classen territory.

That same passing combination produced the next score on a 36-yard TD pass where Rucker got behind the Knights’ defense and jogged into the end zone.

On its third possession Jones broke off a nice 22-yard TD run, eluding several tacklers to complete the outside zone run like you draw it up.

The only big mistakes for the LHS offense in the first half came when Vasiagote threw an interception on the first play of a drive that was set up by a LHS interception.

LHS wasted little time scoring its fourth score after a nice punt return by Vasiagote. On the first play from the Knights’ 35-yard-line he hit Rucker on a screen pass and with a great clearing block downfield by Ashton Lovell, the LHS playmaker quickly raced to the end zone. After Vasiagote added another PAT kick it was 28-0 and the LHS Homecoming crowd was pumped.

The final TD of the opening volley came when Vasiagote fired a 23-yard touchdown pass to DJ Campbell and Vasiagote hit the PAT.

But then the tackling woes showed up as NW got a nice punt return to near midfield and the Knights promptly moved downfield to score and arrange the 35-6 halftime score.

The good thing about the second half was that the LHS coaches cleared the bench, giving a host of young players their chance and several showed some nifty moves.

Zeph Queen got a try at running back and scored from 15 yards out on the Wolverines’ first possession of the third quarter and Joseph Masson-Sanchez scored the next TD on a tough 4-yard run.

And backup quarterback Qynn Plato scored on a bootleg from four yards out to complete the big offensive night for LHS.

“I was glad we got all those kids out there and they ran hard,” Breeze said. “That was what we had hoped to do and it worked out. We just gave them too many points so we had to keep producing points ourselves.”