Published: November 09, 2009 10:55 am      

Stratford earns home game

Bulldogs best Konawa, 21-6

STRATFORD — Stratford’s Bulldogs got the victory they needed Friday night to secure the school’s first home playoff football game in four years, but the way they beat a young Konawa squad left coach Michael Blackburn wondering how his team will react when 13th-ranked Gore comes to town this week to open the Class A playoffs.

“We didn’t play very disciplined,” Blackburn said after Friday’s 21-6 win left his club at 6-4 overall and 6-2 in District A-5 play heading into the postseason. “We’d better have a good week of practice because Gore is pretty good.

“We accomplished what we need to,” he said. “It wasn’t pretty, but you have to give Konawa some credit. They played good defense.”

With the win, Stratford finished the regular season in a three-way tie for second in A-5 with Wayne and Wynnewood behind unbeaten Stroud and earned the second seed out of the district by virtue of points scored against league opponents. Wayne beat Dewar at home Friday to finish third and earn a trip to Central-Sallisaw to open the playoffs, while Wynnewood — a 13-6 winner over Stratford in Week 9 but a loser to Wayne early in the season — is seeded fourth and will travel to No. 5 Talihina Friday night.

Although the Bulldogs ran just 40 plays against Konawa (4-6, 3-5) — on a night when a stiff south wind made both punting and passing an adventure — and managed just 100 of their 282 total yards after intermission, they used field position, an airtight defense of their own and three long scoring runs — two by senior tailback Tyler Mills and one by junior quarterback Chase Chamberlain — to bang out their school’s biggest regular-season victory since 2005.

Mills, one of the most productive running backs in Oklahoma over the second half of the season, had a huge first half — 156 yards and touchdown runs of 24 and 72 yards on just 12 carries — but was shut down by the young, aggressive Konawa defense over the final 24 minutes and gained just 10 yards on nine tough carries after the break. Despite the tough second half, Mills enters the playoffs with 796 yards rushing over his last five games.

Chamberlain, meanwhile, accounted for 84 of Stratford’s second-half yards — 66 rushing and 18 passing — and snapped off a game-clinching 56-yard scoring gallop late in the third quarter after the Tigers had parlayed one of Stratford’s two second-half turnovers into their only touchdown of the night.

With the exception of the three long scoring runs and another 20-plus scamper apiece from Mills and Chamberlain, yards were tough to come by for both teams. Konawa managed just 72 total yards (20 in the second half), and the Tigers were held to one yard or less on 27 of their 49 plays by a swarming, physical Stratford defense led by Tyler Gaines (12 tackles), John Sinnett (10 tackles, including one of Stratford’s four sacks in the game) and Cody Watts (10 tackles, including a sack).

Paced by freshman linebacker Brandon Akerman, Konawa’s young defense went toe-to-toe with the Stratford offense for four quarters, and the Tigers’ second-half performance might have been their best of the season. Only seven of the Bulldogs’ 17 running plays over the final two periods went for three yards or more, and Akerman sacked Chamberlain, recovered a fumble and had three tackles for loss after the break.

“We felt like they just lined up and whipped us in the first half,” Konawa coach Chuck Terry said. “We just didn’t do a good job of making tackles.

“We didn’t play as well as we had in previous weeks,” he said. “We gave up some big runs. We knew our offense was going to struggle because we’re so young, but we’ve got some things to build on for next year.”

The wind played a big role early, when, after the Stratford defense forced a three-and-out on Konawa’s first possession, Alex Yellowfish got off a 17-yard punt into the stiff breeze to give the Bulldogs the ball at the Tiger 33. Mills gained nine yards on first down, then on fourth-and-1 he banged off right guard, raced 24 yards to the end zone for the game’s first touchdown. Dillon Ward’s extra point made it 7-0 with 9:10 still remaining in the opening quarter.

The Tigers used up the remaining time in the period on their longest drive of the game, a grinding 12-play, 34-yarder helped by a pair of off-sides penalties on the Bulldogs — the second on fourth-and-one at the Stratford 40. But Tyler Gaines stopped Konawa fullback Robin Floyd for a one-yard gain on first down, Tyler Mills nailed Yellowfish (the Tigers’ starting tailback) for a one-yard loss on the next play, and on third-and-10, Watts and Matt Sinnett stormed in to sack freshman quarterback Josh Kirkwood for a three-yard loss and force the second Konawa punt of the quarter.

Blackburn called a timeout before time expired to force Yellowfish to kick into the wind, and the the Bulldogs started their second drive of the night at their 20 after the punt carried just 18 yards.

Mills was stopped by Dereck Harjo for a three-yard loss on the opening play of the second quarter, but Chamberlain — who threw 12 first-half passes and 26 overall against Wynnewood a week earlier but was just 3-of-7 Friday — rolled out and hit Nick Cosby for 16 yards and a first down at the 33. Mills gained seven yards on the next play, and after a holding penalty pushed the ball back to the Stratford 28, he swept right, split defenders just past the line of scrimmage and outraced the Konawa secondary on a 72-yard touchdown run that put the Bulldogs — who had run just eight plays — on top 14-0 with 9:45 left in the half.

A pentalty for an illegal block might have kept Stratford from capitalizing on the first of two Konawa turnovers in the game — a fumble by Akerman forced by Alix Vanlandingham and recovered by Clay Rindal at the Bulldog 37 at the end of the Tigers’ longest play of the night (23 yards) — three snaps after the touchdown, but a tough 25-yard run by Mills (who broke four tackles) to the Konawa 21 gave his club a chance to add a third score just before intermission.

Blackburn called a timeout with 20.2 seconds left in the half after Mills gained three yards to the 18 on first down, and a pass interference penalty moved the ball to the Konawa 9. Akerman snuffed out the threat, however, sacking Chamberlain for a 10-yard loss on the final snap of the half.

Big plays by Akerman also short-circuited Stratford’s first three drives in the third quarter, and the Tigers finally capitalized on his third defensive gem to score their only touchdown of the game.

“Brandon is going to get a lot better,” Terry said. “This is only his second year to play football. He has a gift. I don’t know how good he can be if he works at it.”

Akerman — who finished with nine tackles — sacked Chamberlain on the third-and-9 to kill Stratford’s opening drive of the third quarter and force a 21-yard punt into the wind that gave the Tigers field position at their 43, but they couldn’t get a first down and punted the ball back to the Bulldogs. Then Akerman’s tackle of Mills for a one-yard loss on second-and-8 on Stratford’s second possession led to a 22-yard Chamberlain punt to the Konawa 47, but that threat ended when John Sinnett sacked Kirkwood for a 14-yard loss on third-and-7 from the Stratford 39.

The third time was the charm for the Tigers, though. Two plays after a 40-yard Yellowfish punt pinned the Bulldogs at their 13, Mills mishandled a handoff from Chamberlain, and Akerman recovered the fumble at the 16. On second-and-10, Floyd burst up the middle and raced untouched to the end zone to make it 14-6. The snap on the extra point was muffed, however, and Chamberlain and the Stratford defense made sure Konawa didn’t get closer.

After the ensuing wind-aided kickoff dribbled through the end zone for a touchback, Chamberlain needed just two plays to score the game’s final touchdown. He made a nice fake to Mills and ran to the right for 24 yards on first down, and one snap later he took a direct snap out of the shotgun and galloped virtually untouched through the middle of the stunned Konawa defense for the final 56 yards to make it 21-6 with 1:09 left in the third quarter.

Stratford — which scored just six points at Wynnewood despite spending most of the game in the Savages’ end of the field — wasted two more scoring opportunities in the fourth quarter. A short punt into the wind gave the Bulldogs a first down at the Konawa 25, but after a 12-yard Chamberlain pass to Tyler Scoles gave Stratford a first down, three plays gained just one yard and Ward missed a 30-yard field goal with nine minutes left.

Then, after an off-target lateral by Kirkwood on fourth-and-12 from the Konawa 38 skipped out of bounds at the 24 with 3:05 to play, the Bulldogs got one first down but fumbled the ball away, and Zack Harjo recovered at the 10.