Published: September 17, 2008 11:30 am         

Locals prep for 2A-4 play

Veteran Sulphur coach Jim Dixon and first-year Coalgate head man Frank Howard face far different roads through District 2A-4 this fall, but they have similar priorities heading into their final pre-district contests Friday night.

“We want to win, but we want to just keep getting better,” said Dixon, whose 2-0 club, fresh from a 32-14 win at Pauls Valley Friday night, will visit Elgin this week, then will be a solid favorite against district rivals Atoka and Marietta the next two weeks.

“We have to get better and improve on the things we’ve been working on,” echoed Howard, whose young squad fell to 1-1 with a see-saw 26-18 loss to unbeaten Holdenville last week and will host Hartshorne Friday before beginning 2A-4 play with back-to-back showdowns against league heavyweights Plainview and Davis.

The Sulphur-Elgin and Coalgate-Hartshorne contests are part of another full week for area teams. Elsewhere, Ada, 1-1 off a tense 21-20 victory at Durant last week, will host unbeaten Noble; Allen, a 48-0 winner over Cyril, faces a much tougher test this week at Paoli; Konawa, 0-2 after a 33-28 loss at Wewoka Friday night, will host Wayne (one of two teams the Tigers beat last fall); and Stratford, a 28-0 loser to Class A No. 9 Stroud last week in the Bulldogs’ District A-4 opener, will try to climb back into the league playoff race at Dibble.

SULPHUR AT ELGIN

Sulphur made its first appearance in the 2A rankings this week off Friday’s impressive victory over a Pauls Valley team the Bulldogs beat in a thriller last season when both teams were members of District 3A-2.

Senior quarterback Zac Swartz continued his solid play, throwing his third touchdown pass of the season (all to senior Whitt Carter), and the Sulphur defense — one of the most improved in the state in any class in 2007 — dominated the Panthers in the second half. The Bulldogs once trailed 7-6 but blew the game open with 26 unanswered points.

“Zac has done a good job — he runs the offense and he’s throw the ball pretty well,” Dixon said of Swartz, who took the reins of the Sulphur attack this fall after the graduation of three-year starter Robert Thomas. “And Whitt Carter is an outstanding receiver.

“We were much better on defense last year than we were the year before, and if we can stay healthy, I think we can be even better this year,” added Dixon, who returned seven starters on defense. “We’re not real fast, but we hustle to the ball and tackle pretty well. I was pleased with last week’s game. Thsi kids played extremely hard. Pauls Valley has a good ballclub.”

Although Swartz hasn’t quite become the force Thomas (who accounted for more than 70 percent of the Sulphur offense last fall) was as a senior, but he led the team in rushing last week and has thrown for over 100 yards in each of the Bulldogs’ first two games. Sulphur’s tailbacks — led by 235-pound junior sledgehammer Logan Grinstead — have been much more efficient than last season, when they played only a small supporting role to Thomas in the offense.

“We’ve got a lot of guys rotating through there (at tailback),” Dixon said. “We’re averaging about 150 yards a game and about 100 passing, which is good enough if you play good defense and take care of the ball.”

And Sulphur has been winning the turnover battle, committing just two while forcing eight in the first two games of the season.

Elgin is winless coming into Friday’s contest, having lost to Class 2A No. 6 Plainview in the season opener before dropping a 20-15 decision to 3A No. 6 Marlow on a late touchdown in Week 2. Dixon said, however, that the Owls are more dangerous than the average 0-2 team.

“They’re better than their record,” he said. “They played Plainview close until their good running back (Kwame Tate) got hurt, and they lost to Marlow late last week. I think we have our work cut out for this week.

“At this point, there’s not any one thing we’re lacking in,” Dixon added. “We’re not great at anything right now, but we’re not bad — pretty good — at all of them.”

HARTSHORNE AT COALGATE

After dominating a struggling Stratford offense in a Week 1 victory, Coalgate couldn’t hang onto the lead — three separate leads, in fact — against a veteran Holdenville squad last week. Howard said the difference on the scoreboard was simply a difference in experience between his club and the Wolverines, who were coming off a 54-0 blowout of Wewoka in their opener.

“We just had some young kids that didn’t play their assignments,” Howard said. “They made some mental, not physical, errors that kind of hurt us. It was the first home game and Homecoming, and there was a lot of pressure. We just have to get over those little hiccups.”

One young Wildcat who continued to impress was sophomore quarterback Dale Powell. After throwing two touchdown passes to junior wideout Nick Thompson and returning an interception for a third score to account for all his team’s scoring in Week 1, Powell was a solid 9-for-15 for 157 yards with another scoring strike to Thompson (who caught four passes for 96 yards) and two rushing touchdown to again have a hand in all three Coalgate touchdowns last week.

“We have a lot of respect for Dale, and he’s carrying the load for us right now,” Howard said. “We’re hoping we can get some young guys to step up and take some pressure off him so he won’t think he has to score every time he touches the ball.”

The Wildcat offense took a hit last week when tailback Austin Delozier — one of only four seniors on the roster — suffered a knee injury that could keep him out several games. Sophomore Shay Loudermilk, who had shared reps with Delozier through the first two games, will be asked to assume more of the rushing load against Hartshorne, and Howard said junior Tanner Price will move from wide receiver to tailback to spell Loudermilk.

“Shay has to step up and carry us, and we’re going to use Tanner there a little bit,” Howard explained. “(Price) has caught some passes, but we need him to run the ball a little bit this week.”

His lack of depth at tailback could force Howard to ask even more of Powell and Thompson, who have been joined Sulphur’s Swartz and Carter and Ada’s Qumain Black and Colton Lancaster as the area’s most productive quarterback-receiver combos so far this fall.

“All our receivers are running good routes, and we’d like to spread the ball around, but Nick’s a big target and we’re not afraid to go to him,” Howard said of Thompson. “We have to be able to hang onto the ball (Powell’s first interception of the year was Coalgate’s only turnover against Holdenville), and we’ve got to be able to score more than 18 points to be successful. Our offensive line is getting better every week.”

In Hartshorne, the Wildcats will face a team with a similar record but coming off back-to-back so-so efforts — a 41-6 loss to 2A No. 10 Vian in Week 1 and a 15-14 victory over winless Atoka last Friday.

“They’re a good ball club,” Howard said of this week’s opponent. “We need to be more sound defensively than we were last week.

“We got some positives out of (last week’s game) — we did some things right in special teams and other areas, but if we’re going to be successful in 2A, we’re going to have to be more consistent and put a whole game together,” he added. “We need to get our offensive and defensive personnel positioned heading into districts. “

     

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