Published: September 10, 2008 01:14 pm      

Coalgate opens with win over Stratford

Stratford — Coalgate sophomore quarterback Dale Powell tossed a pair of long scoring passes to Nick Thompson and also returned an interception for another touchdown to lead Coalgate to an 18-6 victory over Stratford Friday night at Blackburn Stadium in the season opener for both teams.

Powell, who started the 2007 season as the Coalgate quarterback but ended it as a back-up to senior Curtis John, had his best game as a varsity player against the Bulldogs, completing 8-of-15 passes for 167 yards. His 26-yard strike to Thompson with 4:24 left in the opening quarter gave Coalgate a 6-0 lead, and he found Thompson for an 84-yard bomb on third-and-long with 7:19 left in the half to make it 12-0 at intermission.

Stratford cut the lead to six on a 59-yard pass from Chase Chamberlain to Adam Vanlandingham to account for all but 20 of the Bulldogs’ yards through the air in the contest, but Powell gave the Wildcats some breathing room when he picked off a Chamberlain pass and returned it 30 yards for a score with 8:40 to play.

“Dale did a great job, our offensive line did a great job, and our whole defense had a great night,” first-year Coalgate coach Frank Howard said. “It was a great team effort from everybody.

“We sure swarmed to the ball on defense,” he added. “We had people making plays all over the field.”

Sophomore linebacker Shay Loudermilk had a game-high 11 tackles and one of three Coalgate fumble recoveries; Lance Walker had 10 tackles, including a sack; Ryan Brazeal had nine tackles, including two sacks, and he forced and recovered a fumble; and Thompson also caused and recovered a fumble for the Wildcats, who limited Stratford to just 129 total yards on 46 plays.

Powell was also the leading rusher for Coalgate, which finished with 280 total yards.

“I thought our defense played pretty well except for two big plays,” Stratford coach Michael Blackburn said. “We just have to get better. We didn’t tackle well at times, and we didn’t block well at all.”

Coalgate will host Holdenville — a 54-7 winner over Wewoka Friday — this week, while Stratford will be at home against District A-4 favorite Stroud in the league opener for both teams.

At Sulphur

Sulphur 34, Oklahoma Christian School 7

New Sulphur quarterback Zac Swartz threw two touchdown passes to fellow senior Whitt Carter and also scored from a yard out during a 34-0 first-half blitz, and the Bulldogs went on to a 34-7 victory over outmanned OCS in their season opener.

Swartz, who took over this season for three-year starter Robert Thomas, completed just four passes, but his 26-yarder to Carter made it 6-0 after one quarter, his one-yard run and conversion pass to Carter early in the second period upped the lead to 14-0, and their 65-yard connection in the second period put the Bulldogs on top 21-0.

Short scoring runs by Chance Wallace and Grinstead later in the second quarter completed the scoring for Sulphur.

“We had some first-game jitters, but after we got going midway through the first quarter we were virtually unstoppable on defense,” Sulphur offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Jeff Nye said. “Our first-team defense also had a shutout, and that’s a positive.”

Dillon Anderson, Ty Pettit and Logan Grinstead were the leaders of the Bulldog defense, and Grinstead also rushed for 60 yards to pace a Sulphur ground game that churned out 132 yards.

Sulphur faces a big road test this week, when the Bulldogs travel to former District 3A-2 rival Pauls Valley for a non-district contest.

At Allen

Grandfield 48, Allen 26

Allen had no answer for quarterback John Brown, who rushed for 183 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries and threw for another 230 yards and five scores to lead Grandfield (No. 2 in Class C) to the victory.

Levi Howard ran the opening kickoff back 70 yards for a touchdown to give the Mustangs an early 8-0 lead, and junior quarterback Hazen Adsit’s 31-yard run gave Allen a 16-6 lead late in the first quarter. From there on, though, it was all Brown and Grandfield.

Brown, who threw a 46-yard scoring strike to Jessie Jacks for the first Grandfield score, cut the Allen lead to 16-14 on a 53-yard run in the first period, then he threw for one touchdown and ran for two others as the visitors built a 32-16 lead at the break.

Josh Holder had a big opener for Allen in the loss, rushing for 90 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries and combining with Howard for 202 return yards. Allen was repeatedly hurt by mistakes after its fast start, piling up some critical penalties and losing four fumbles. Tanner Ashby also had a big game from his defensive end spot, recording four sacks of Brown.

“We were definitely up to the challenge of playing with them,” first-year Allen coach Kenny Deaton said. “We started off strong, then we started kicking ourselves in the second quarter. We had a lot of penalties and started first-and-15 and first-and-20 a lot. With a young club you can’t do that. My backs did a good job, and (junior) Hazen Adsit did a good job for his first time playing quarterback.”