Published: September 23, 2009 04:30 pm      

Sulphur to face Pfaff air attack

ADA — If there is going to be a changing of the guard in rugged District 2A-4, it might have to come this week.

When the season began, traditional powers Davis, Plainview and Sulphur were conceded the top three spots — and three of the four playoff berths — out of the district, and as league plays begins Friday, those three teams are still considered the favorites. But promising starts to their seasons have the folks in Coalgate and Atoka thinking the Wildcats and the Wampus Cats might belong among the 2A-4 elite — something the two old rivals will both get a chance to prove right away.

Coalgate, 2-1 after a tough 26-20 loss to Hartshorne last week, will take on eighth-ranked and unbeaten Plainview at home Friday in the district opener for both teams, and Atoka — also 2-1 with a 29-21 loss to Hartshorne in Week 2 the only blemish on its record — will host Sulpur in the biggest game for a Wampus Cat squad in years.

Elsewhere in the area Friday, Ada — a 21-7 winner at Noble last week — will try to improve to 4-0 at Tulsa Edision in the district opener for both teams; Stratford, which snapped a two-game season-opening losing streak with a 40-0 rout of Dibble to improve to 1-1 in District A-5, will host Crescent in the Bulldogs’ final non-district game of the season; Allen, 2-0 in District B-2 and 3-0 on the season after an impressive 52-14 victory over Paoli, will be favored to extend its winning streak Friday at Bowlegs; and Konawa, 1-2 on the season and 1-1 in A-5 play after a loss at Wayne last week, will host Mounds.

PLAINVIEW

AT COALGATE

Hartshorne outgained Coalgate by more than 2-to-1 (467-219), but a pair of huge defensive plays by junior Dale Powell — a 31-yard interception return and an 86-yard return of a fumble — actually had the Wildcats in front 20-12 in the third quarter before the Miners scored the game’s final 14 points. Powell, who is also Coalgate’s quarterback, scored his team’s other touchdown on a two-yard run, and with 114 yards rushing and 43 passing, he accounted for all but 62 of the Wildcats’ yards.

“We count on Dale to do a lot of things that we need to do to be successful,” second-year Coalgate coach Frank Howard said of Powell, who has already thrown and run for touchdowns and has scored on both defense and special teams through the first three games of the season. “He’s one of those kids who does whatever we ask of him.”

But Howard said he could be without Powell and two other starters — Nolan Fanning and Dylan Franklin — for all or part of Friday’s district opener. Fanning (the team’s backup tailback and quarterback) won’t play, and Howard said Powell and Franklin (the right guard on offense and a tackle on defense) are both questionable.

“We have to be sure not to bang them up in practice this week,” Howard said of his walking wounded.

If Powell can’t play, he will be replaced at quarterback by either starting tailback Shay Loudermilk or sophomore Joseph Ward (the team’s leading receiver through three games). The injuries come at the worst possible time for the Wildcats, who are facing a Plainview squad that suffered some major graduation losses but hasn’t missed a beat. The Indians are 3-0, and they replaced Sulphur — a 14-7 loser to unbeaten Elgin last week — at No. 8 in the 2A rankings after beating Lone Grove in Week 3.

“They’ve got a lot of talented kids,” Howard said. “They are just as dangerous as they were last year.

“They have a lot of size, and they’re very physical,” he added. “Their quarterback is quick, and they have a big tight end who is very physical and plays middle linebacker for them. They’re ranked No. 8 in Class 2A, and they probably should be ranked higher than that.”

Plainview’s high-powered offense should offer a stern test for a Coalgate defense — led by Powell in the secondary and Loudermilk at middle linebacker — that was impressive in victories over Stratford and Holdenville to open the season but surrendered almost 10 yards per play to Hartshorne last week.

“We had some miscommunication up front on defense, and (Hartshorne) took advantage of that,” Howard said. “We’re going to try to fix that this week.

“We have to treat this like any other game,” he said. “When you play somebody like Plainview, you have to do everything right.”

At this point, Coalgate, Atoka and Tishomingo look like the leading contenders for the fourth playoff berth out of 2A-4, and Howard said a victory by the Wampus Cats this week will leave his club with a tall hill to climb unless the Wildcats can upset Plainview.

“If Atoka upsets Sulphur, we know we have to beat Atoka and Sulphur to get in,” he noted. “We talk a lot about being in control of our own destiny. We don’t want to have to worry about which team wins by how many points at the end of the season.”

SULPHUR AT ATOKA

Sulphur, the defending 2A-4 champion, dropped out of the 2A top 10 for the first time in two years with Friday’s loss, and in Atoka the Bulldogs will face the same kind of high-powered passing attack they couldn’t slow down in a 37-20 Week 1 loss at OCS.

“They throw the ball most of the time — they throw it good,” veteran Sulphur coach Jim Dixon said of the Wampus Cats, who are led by junior quarterback L. T. Pfaff — Oklahoma’s passing yardage leader in any class as a sophomore. “They’re real comparable (to OCS). They can both throw the heck out of the ball, and they can both run it. Like OCS, they have some good receivers. We’ll have to play our best and take care of the ball.

“Hopefully it will help us that we’ve seen all that, but just about everybody throws it these days,” Dixon said. “When you’re the running team like we are, you’re the oddball.”

Sulphur has committed seven turnovers through three games, and Dixon said the Bulldogs will have to eliminate the mistakes Friday while taking advantage of the opportunities they missed against Elgin.

“We’ve had way too many turnovers,” he said. “Offensively, I think we’re playing extremely well. Last week we only ended up with seven points, but we could have had 20 points in the first half. We had our chances. It was an even ball game. We were ahead 7-0 at the half and were playing real good defense. We kind of slumped a couple of series there on defense, and (Elgin) picked it up on defense in the second half. We had two real good drives in the second half.

“We’ve scored 75 points in three games,” Dixon added. “A lot of times you can be 3-0 scoring that many points.”

After completing 13 of his 17 passes in the loss to OCS and a Week 2 (48-26) victory over Pauls Valley, Sulphur sophomore quarterback Ty Williams was just 2-for-6 against Elgin. But junior tailback Chris Turrobiartes continued his breakout season, rushing 25 times for 170 yards to run his yardage total to 502 through three games.

“(Williams) is playing real well for a sophomore,” Dixon said. “He’s executing our offense and throwing the ball pretty good.

“(Turrobiartes) is only 5-4 and he’s been averaging running 30-something times a game, and he’s handling it pretty well,” he said. “He’s not big, but he’s tough and strong and he runs hard.”

Despite his club’s disappointing record heading into the district opener, Dixon said he has seen steady improvement during the Bulldogs’ rugged pre-district schedule.

“Even though we’re 1-2, which is disappointing, we’ve played three good ballclubs (OCS and Elgin are both unbeaten, and Pauls Valley is 1-2 but lost to Newcastle on a controversial late touchdown),” Dixon said. “Atoka (5-5 last season) has the best club they’ve had in a long time. They’ll be ready — everybody is when they play us, I promise.”