Turnovers spell doom for Wolverines

It is hard enough to win football games in Class 6A(II) with a full lineup but when you are missing five starters including your quarterback it’s never easy to be competitive.

Lawton High School did find a way to take an early 8-7 lead over Ponca City Friday at Cameron Stadium but after that it was all Wildcats who left town with a 41-8 victory.

With quarterback Jayden Olmstead out with a concussion, Pene Vasiagote moved into that key spot and while he did move the club at times, on other drives the receivers were unable to handle his passes as five throws were batted by LHS receivers and the alert Wildcats were quick to take the gift possessions.

“I thought Pene did a good job considering he just had to be thrown in there,” LHS Coach Ryan Breeze said. “You have to catch those balls if we’re going to move the ball. We can only run the ball so much. When teams crowd the box we’ve got to throw it.”

Were his passes coming at too quick a pace?

“Most receivers want the ball to get there quick so they can catch it and then run,” he said. “He was on target with those and our guys just have to catch them.”

On the other hand, the Wildcats didn’t drop many of PC quarterback Tay Moore’s passes as the senior completed 17-of-28 passes for 346 yards and four touchdowns. Moore also ran the ball 11 times for 143 yards and two more touchdowns.

“We knew their quarterback was a good runner and we preached to be ready,” Breeze told his team after the game. “That was one thing we knew he’d do.”

Moore hit Cole Runnels for a 32-yard TD pass on the Wildcats’ first possession of the game.

But LHS recovered a fumble on its third possession and set up with a first down at its own 34. Nate Jones got 27 yards on the first play then Vasiagote fired a strike to Marcus Rucker who caught the ball and raced the final 39 yards to score.

Vasiagote then ran off the swinging gate and LHS led, 8-7, with 2:21 left in the first half.

The first LHS interception set the Wildcats up with a first down at midfield and Moore raced 50 yards to give the visitors the lead for good at 14-8.

That’s the way the half ended but it was a matter of time before the LHS defense was simply worn down by the Wildcats who spread it out and threw the ball all over the field.

But after PC scored on its first two possessions of the second half the lead ballooned to 28-8 and things went downhill from there.

Nate Jones did his best to spark the LHS ground game but with a bum ankle he was somewhat limited on both sides of the ball but he still rushed for 109 yards on 23 tough carries.

The good news for LHS is that in 6A(II) there will be six teams in each district make the playoffs which leaves everyone in the hunt. The Wolverines play Northwest Classen Thursday and the Knights are struggling and it may be just what LHS needs.

“We just hope to get some of these players back this coming week,” Breeze said. “We just need a win to give us a boost. We still have a chance to win four games and host a playoff game. We didn’t have much depth to start the season and when you lose five starters in one week it really hurts.”