Big-play Eagles knock off KHS, 28-19

Generally, third-and-long is a favorable situation for the defense.

Two such instances were far from the case last Friday night and it cost Kingfisher its first football loss of the season.

Weatherford scored on a 79-yard pass play in the first quarter and a 71-yarder in the fourth as part of a 28-19 win at home over the Yellowjackets.

In each case, it appeared the Yellowjacket defense was set to get a stop.

The initial score came as the Eagles faced 3rd-and-9 and was part of a 14-0 start for the home team.

The latter came on a 3rd-and-14 situation after KHS had pulled within two points for the second time in the game.

In that case, quarterback Reece Villines found a wide open Ryan Shields on a tight end seam route for the game-clinching touchdown with 6:03 to play.

“We had our chances,” KHS head coach Jeff Myers said after the defeat dropped his team to 1-1 on the season.

“If we get the first stop, they probably don’t get up two touchdowns on us,” he said. “If we get the last one, we’ve got a chance to take the lead late in the game.

“But, they had a couple of great individual efforts on one and a good call on the other, so hat’s off to Weatherford.”

A blitzing Slade Snodgrass had Villines in his paws and was pulling him down to the brand new turf on the first drive of the night, but Villines was able to fling it to Brett Bozarth on a crossing route at the very last second.

Bozarth caught the sideline and was gone. The Jackets fumbled it

The Jackets fumbled it over on their first possession of the game and the Eagles turned that into a 49-yard drive.

Malachi Johnson scored on a 2-yard run and the home team led 14-0 at 4:31 of the first quarter.

“That was a point in the game where it could have gone south for us really quick,” Myers said. “There are some teams who face a double dose of adversity like that and they just pack it in for the rest of the night.”

Kingfisher didn’t do any packing.

In fact, the Jackets answered right back with a two-minute scoring drive.

Jax Sternberger connected with Cade Covalt for a big third-down conversion and the drive ended with an Alan Muñoz 2-yard touchdown run.

“Our guys answered the challenge with that drive,” Myers said.

The defense also responded with a stop, which led to yet another KHS TD drive.

A bulk of the 62-yard march came at the tail end of the first quarter.

It was capped at 11:49 of the second when Muñoz again scored from two yards out.

A low snap after the first TD led to a failed pass conversion as the Jackets had to improvise. A planned two-point conversion after this TD also failed and Kingfisher trailed 14-12.

The score remained there until the third quarter.

“When you consider all the things we did wrong in the first half and we only trailed by two points, we felt pretty good about it,” Myers said.

But Weatherford increased its ground game production in the third quarter.

KHS denied the home team with a turnover on downs in its initial drive, but gave it right back with an interception.

The Eagles chewed up much of the third-quarter clock and eventually turned it into a 23-yard Malachi Johnson touchdown run with six seconds left in the third.

The ensuing extra-point put the Eagles up two possessions, 21-12.

After the teams traded punts, KHS got back within a single score.

The Eagle defense got a healthy dose of Muñoz right up the middle. He kept churning out yards and eventually scored on an 11- yard run.

His extra-point made it 21-19 with 7:03 to play.

The defense then pushed Weatherford back four yards in two plays to - seemingly - be on the cusp of forcing another punt into the south wind.

However, the Eagles drew up the play that saw Shields streak down the middle of the field untouched for the score.

“It was a good call,” Myers said. “We were on the verge of forcing another punt and felt good about going down and taking the lead, but they ran a great play.”

The play kept momentum on Weatherford’s side for good.

The two long scoring plays through the air accounted for 150 of the Eagles’ 220 passing yards.

Weatherford was also limited to 3.1 yards per carry.

“You take away just a few plays of theirs and our defense was really, really good,” Myers said. “But, all of the plays count.”

Whether on offense or defense or special teams, Muñoz was on the field for most of those plays.

The senior ran for 128 yards and all three of Kingfisher’s TDs on 15 attempts.

He added another three catches for 13 yards and was tied for the team lead with seven tackles.

Muñoz had to miss a few plays as he fought off cramps.

“He left it all out there,” Myers said. “He was one of those who gave us a real chance at winning.”

Jax Sternberger was 12 of 19 for 118 yards and the one interception.

He hit six different receivers.

Covalt had two catches for 48 yards and Kyle Borelli two for 34 more.

Borelli also had seven tackles.

Konner Baartman added six while Sternberger and Marcus Lemon were in on five apiece.

The Jackets will wrap up their non-district slate Friday when they travel to Chisholm.

The Longhorns are 0-2 and have been outscored 91-0 so far.

“They’re struggling right now, but that means nothing,” Myers said. “We’ve still got some stuff we need to improve on, so that’s what we’ll work on this week and hopefully see the results Friday night on the field.”

Game time was originally 7:30 p.m., but the kickoff has been moved up to 7 p.m.