Published: September 25, 2008 10:49 am      

Coalgate coach welcomes early District 2A-4 hurdles

Coalgate — It’s hard to believe, but first-year Coalgate football coach Frank Howard isn’t cursing the schedule makers for the Wildcats’ draw to start District 2A-4 play. In fact, he’s almost giddy about his young team’s back-to-back showdowns with 2A powers Plainview (ranked No. 5) and Davis (No. 9) the next two Fridays.

“It’s going to be a good challenge for us,” said Howard, whose club improved to 2-1 with a 7-0 win over Hartshorne last week. “We’ve faced some good ballclubs but nothing like this. We’ll find out where we are and the things we need to do to get into the playoffs.

“We like playing the top two teams in our district right off the bat,” he added. “If we get through the next two weeks, we’ll find out how the rest of the district will start falling and where we need to go.”

Coalgate’s trip to Plainview is part of an interesting Week 4 for area teams. Sulphur, ranked No. 6 in 2A after three solid wins to start the season, figures to have a much easier time than Coalgate in its 2A-4 opener; still, the Bulldogs face a potential pothole in a 2-1 Atoka squad boasting two blowout wins and a 15-14 loss to Hartshorne.

Elsewhere, Konawa — 1-2 but coming off a 38-0 win over Wayne — has a chance to move above the .500 mark in district play for the first time in three years if the Tigers can beat winless Mounds Friday in their third District A-5 contest; Stratford, 1-1 in A-5 after a 51-14 victory at Dibble last week to improve to 1-2 on the season, will move back outside the district for the final time this season when the Bulldogs travel to Crescent; Allen, 1-2 after a tough loss to Paoli last week in which the Mustangs lost starting quarterback Hazen Adsit to a shoulder injury, will host Bowlegs; and Ada — 2-1 but still looking for its first second-half points of the season — will be a prohibitive favorite when the Cougars (No. 10 in Class 5A) host Tulsa Edison.

At Plainview, Coalgate’s defense will try to contain one of the state’s most explosive offensive units. The Indians have outscored their first three opponents by a combined 139-41 and come into league play off a 62-24 romp at Lone Grove last week.

“They’re a really talented bunch,” Howard said. “Their quarterback is quick, fast and has a good arm, and they have a lot of talented athletes.

“Their defense is pretty solid; their strength is their offense, though,” he added. “You have to try to stop them, because you can’t get into a scoring battle with them. If you can’t keep them out of the end zone, you’re in for a long night. I don’t know if many teams in 2A can match points with them.”

Coalgate’s defense has been solid for the most part through three games, limiting Stratford to a single score in an 18-6 victory in the season opener and shutting out Hartshorne last Friday. In between, the Wildcats surrendered four touchdowns in a 26-18 loss to a Holdenville squad that is unbeaten and wasn’t tested in its other two games.

Howard said his defense is talented but is still being victimized by its overall youth.

“We’re still young,” he noted. “I’m not using that as an excuse, but we still make some ‘young’ mistakes. The more reps we get, the better.”

A couple of Coalgate’s youngest starters have been among the Wildcats’ most consistent performers on both sides of the ball, however. Quarterback Dale Powell is averaging about 150 yards per game passing, he is the team’s leading rusher and scorer through three games, and he returned an interception for a touchdown from his safety spot in the win over Stratford. Fellow sophomore Shay Loudermilk was asked to carry most of the load at tailback last week because of an injury to senior Austin Delozier and rushed for a career-high 123 yards. He also had a team-high 11 tackles and leads Coalgate in that category heading into Friday’s game.

“We have a lot of faith in Shay on both sides of the ball,” Howard said. “We know he’s going to do a great job.”

Howard said he isn’t approaching his team’s brutal two-week stretch (which is really a tough four weeks considering the Wildcats host another top 10 team in Sulphur on Oct. 16) as back-to-back lost weekends. Instead, he sees the next few weeks as a chance for his young squad to get better in a hurry.

“We’re taking the approach that we take every ballgame — it’s about us getting better and trying to get ready for the playoffs,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re playing the No. 1 team in the state — if you catch them at the right time, you have a chance to win.

“We’re not taking the attitude that we’re playing Plainview and Davis the next two weeks, so let’s get over with it,” Howard said. “We’re trying to stay focused so we can keep improving.”

Howard hasn’t beaten a ranked team as a head coach, but he was an assistant on an unranked Fort Gibson squad that upset No. 1 Clinton in the state semifinals “in 1999 or 2000”. He said this week’s game is “a whole different situation”, adding, however, that the Wildcats can give a good account of themselves if they continue to move forward as a team.

“We know if we do things right, we’re going to have some success,” he said. “If we don’t do things right, we’ll be in trouble.”