Mac’s second-half domination decks LHS

Sometimes there isn’t a need for halftime adjustments in football; sometimes it just comes down to better execution.

Friday night when MacArthur cleaned up the turnovers and penalties it committed in an “embarrassing” first half, the Highlanders scored on their first five possessions of the second half to race to a 41-7 victory over Lawton High to reclaim the General’s Cup signifying the city champions.

“We just played a really embarrassing first half offensively,” Mac Head Coach Brett Manning said. “It wasn’t a case of making adjustments we just had to eliminate the turnovers and mistakes. It was as simple as getting set at the line. We really didn’t make any major adjustments.”

In the first half the Highlanders turned the ball over three times, twice on interceptions and once on a fumble and the Wolverines were able take advantage of the first interception and move 23 yards to score and take a 7-0 lead after two Nate Jones runs covered the final 11 yards and the PAT kick found the mark.

That lead lasted just 11 seconds as Xzavier Boothe took the ensuing kickoff 80 yards, making one cut and then outrunning the LHS defenders to the end zone for a 7-7 tie.

“One of the interceptions was a bad throw where we left it inside and it should have been outside and one of them the receiver ran the wrong route,” Manning said. “It was just a variety of things we didn’t do well. We were just shooting ourselves in the foot.”

All of those mistakes vanished after halftime as the Mac offense rattled off five straight touchdown drives of 42, 19, 91, 40 and 53 yards. And all of them took little time as the 91-yard march took just eight plays and 2:19 off the clock.

The big play was a 32-yard pass to Dominc Collins who made a nice catch to set Mac up at the LHS 43 and five running plays later Alvan Locklin was in the end zone after a 13-yard run which pushed the score to 27-7 and forced LHS into catch-up mode and the Wolverines were just not able to maintain offensive consistency against the Mac defense.

Marquis Harris had the fourth TD run of the second half after a blocked punt by Mac’s Boothe and Jeremy Hutcheson tacked on the final score on a 6-yard run. Miguel Martinez kicked six PATs for the Highlanders.

Collins was seemingly all over the field, catching passes, breaking up LHS passing attempts, punting and doing whatever he could to make things happen.

“Dominic Collins had a great game,” Manning said. “He works hard and does so many things for us.”

Manning said defensively there were no major changes as well.

“We wanted to get pressure on them and we brought it a lot and we were pretty disruptive,” he said.

Ironically in the second half the pass to Collins that sparked the long drive was the only one the Highlanders threw as their offensive line took charge. The Highlanders rushed for 337 yards on 38 carries, most of that coming in the second half.

Mac’s defense wound up limiting LHS back Nate Jones to 79 yards on 23 carries. LHS did complete 17-of-27 passes but those went for just 72 yards as the Mac secondary wasted little time making hits to stop LHS receivers before they had room to advance the ball downfield.

The Highlanders will enjoy an open date this week and begin preparations for the Sept. 22 District 5A-1 opener at Duncan. This Friday the Wolverines will face Eisenhower Friday at Cameron Stadium in the final intracity game of the season.