Reporter predicts District 5A-1 wins for Elgin, Mac

While fall break is for the students across the region to get a break from the daily routine of classroom work, there are still football, softball and volleyball teams practicing or playing in the state tournaments scattered across the state.

One good thing for football fans is this week gives them a chance to get a good dose of football action on Thursday and Friday.

Tonight (Thursday) fans can choose from Noble at Elgin, Duncan at Altus, Weatherford at Cache, Marlow at OKC Douglass, Frederick at Comanche; Walters at Carnegie; and Cyril at Central High in eight-man action. The only team with an open date this week is Apache so I’d expect Warriors’ coach Tanner Koons and some of his players might make the drive to Carnegie to get a look at the Blue Devils who will host Apache next week.

Friday there are other games to pick from including he following: Lawton High at Deer Creek-Edmond; Shawnee at Eisenhower; MacArthur at Midwest City; Mangum at Empire; and an interesting eight-man battle matching Grandfield and Tipton at Don Royal Stadium.

Probably the two most-anticipated games are both from District 5A-1; Noble at Elgin tonight and then Friday’s Mac at Midwest City contest.

The Noble-Elgin game stacks up as a dandy if for no other reason than the Bears beat Elgin last year at Noble and this bunch of Owls has not forgotten that tough loss. This will be Elgin’s toughest test to date and it will give the Owls’ defense and coordinator Jack Baker a chance to go against an offense that will throw different schemes at you and throw the ball downfield from any spot on the field.

We all saw the game where El Reno put 68 points on the board against Noble, so the Bears must have some gaps in that defense. That’s where we see the Owls’ offense finding those gaps and exploiting them. Elgin quarterback Tres Lorah has been very accurate this season and with a pair of great backs in Matthew Lund and Ritson Meyer we see no reason this score won’t happen: ELGIN 42, Noble 14.

How about Mac at Midwest City? It has become obvious to those of us who have watched some video on the Bombers that this team isn’t as solid as last season’s group. Now video seems to have confirmed that the Bombers have lost their most experienced quarterback.

We’ve seen the Mac defense stop some talented backs and some good passers and with the secondary that the Highlanders have that is led by Xzavier Boothe, we see Mac taking this one in a good battle: MacArthur 36, MIDWEST CITY 13.