Owls’ offense dominates in district clincher

ELGIN—Physical football was on full display Friday at the Owls Nest and while both teams got in some big hits, in the end top-ranked Elgin had too many offensive weapons that performed behind a massive offensive line which set the table for a 42-7 victory over Clinton that clinched the 4A-1 title and earned a home berth in the playoffs in less than two weeks.

Clinton seemed willing to give up something in the secondary, putting eight defenders in the box at times and throwing new schemes at the Owls. It worked for four running plays before Ritson Meyer started to find more gaps in the Red Tornadoes’ defense and that set the table for senior quarterback Tres Lorah to pick apart the visitors.

Lorah, who already owns the Elgin career TD passing record, stood in the perfect pocket and proceeded to connect on 18-of-23 passes for 300 yards on the nose and five touchdowns. He finished his time of the field by connecting on 14-of-15 down the stretch as he often had two or three receivers running free in the secondary to choose from.

Lorah entered the game needing just 160 passing yards to break the school career passing yardage mark and he reached that mark in the second quarter when he found Kason Meyer on a 12-yard completion that started a nine-play touchdown drive that ended with R. Meyer scoring on a 10-yard run with 5:51 left in the first half. Aidan Delgado toed the PAT and it was 28-0 and the Owls were in full control.

“Clinton threw some different defensive schemes against us and it took us some time to figure it out,” Elgin coach Chalmer Wyatt said after the Owls’ ninth straight win of the season. “Tres had a big night because our line blocked well and our receivers caught the ball. Our wide receivers and tight ends all did a really good job.”

The only negative on the night was that one of the strong senior class, Shay Spencer, suffered an apparent upper arm injury and was taken via ambulance to Southwestern Medical Center in Lawton where evaluations were still going on after the game.

“You hate to see a senior get hurt but we preach all the time that it’s next man up in those situations,” Wyatt said. “We have some guys behind our starters who we’ve coached up and they are ready to go if needed. I’ve seen players get thrown into the fight and go out and play well so we’ll handle that next week in practice.”

R. Meyer wound up with 18 tough carries, rushing for 140 yards and one touchdown on the night.

The Elgin defense was not to be outdone, rolling a shutout until late in the game when a muffed punt gave the Red Tornadoes second life at the Owls’ 31-yard-line. It took six plays, all rushing, for the visitors to score and it was powerful Clinton back Zaedon Collins who got the score, bulling across on a 1-yard TD run with 1:25 left in the game.

Collins finished with 125 yards on 20 tough carries.

“He’s a powerful back, probably the best senior in the district,” Wyatt said. “I thought we did a good job on him but he’s going to break tackles and get yards after contact. He’s strong and tough to bring down.”

The Elgin defense with Jace William, Spencer and Tristan Kephart up front and linebackers Colyn Donnelly in the middle go plenty of bodies on Collins and while he got some yards at times, he never broke one for a touchdown.

As for a possible playoff matchup in the first round of the 4A playoffs on Nov. 14, it appears that the opponent will be Ardmore which edged Harrah, 21-20, Friday in the district they will be matched with in the first round of the playoffs.

The Owls will close the regular season Friday at Cache in the Annual Battle of the Wichitas. Cache got its second win of the season Friday by beating Douglass, 56-0.