Jackets let upset win slip away late at Pauls Valley

Victory was imminent…until it wasn’t.

Pauls Valley scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to spoil Kingfisher’s upset bid with a 43-40 victory at home.

The Jackets led by 21 in the first half, 18 entering the fourth quarter and were still up 12 with less than half of the fourth quarter remaining.

But fourth-ranked Pauls Valley kept scoring and Kingfi sher couldn’t answer. The final blow was a 27-yard touchdown reception by Caden Knighten with 2:47 to play.

The two-point run by Maddox Prince gave the Panthers a three-point lead, their first since going up 7-0 in the early moments of the game.

“It was one of those where down the stretch we just needed to make a few more plays and didn’t,” said KHS head coach Reagan Roof. “And they did. They were able to make them and we weren’t.”

That wasn’t the case for much of the game. Knighten, Pauls Valley’s three-star standout back who is committed to Baylor, needed two carries to cover 80 yards on the first possession of the game with the score coming from 52 yards out.

Much of the rest of the first half and the third quarter belonged to Kingfisher.

The Jackets were getting chunk plays left and right mostly through the air.

KHS immediately answered Knighten’s TD with a scoring drive that saw Jhett Birdwell connect with Jackson Willbanks from 26 yards out to tie the game.

Kingfisher’s defense settled in and gave the Jackets the ball back. The offense responded with a trick play as Birdwell threw to Paytun Burnham behind the line of scrimmage.

As the defense turned its attention to Burnham, Hayes White got behind everyone to catch a 33-yard touchdown from Burnham.

The Jackets made it three straight scores when Birdwell hit Kasen Blair with a 28-yard touchdown early in the second period.

The quarterback then made it a three-score game with a 7-yard TD run at 9:58 of the second quarter.

Kingfisher’s defense once again stymied Pauls Valley and the Jackets were threatening to score again, but Birdwell was picked off.

It was the first of two straight possessions that ended with an interception.

In between, Pauls Valley got a long touchdown run by quarterback Tanner Perry.

The Jackets stole back some momentum before halftime as Cale Reagan’s tackle in the end zone for a safety put KHS up 30-14.

It stayed there until 4:40 remained in the third quarter and Knighten got his second TD run, this time from a yard out.

Kingfisher once again had an answer as Burnham hauled in a 40-yard strike from Birdwell.

It was Birdwell’s third TD pass of the game and fourth for the Jackets.“We felt going in we could do some things and we thought we had a chance to win it,” said Roof.

The Jackets’ chances increased when Jake Sisk blasted a 40-yard field goal for a 40-22 lead with two seconds to go in the third quarter.

But the offense stopped scoring and it was Pauls Valley’s turn to churn out the big plays.

Knighten scored from 4 yards out with 8:48 to play and then Prince caught a 57-yard touchdown with 5:29 to go.

Knighten’s last TD of the game proved to be the game winner.

On paper, the Jackets were big underdogs, leading to a lot of disbelief at score updates throughout the game.

The surprise didn’t come from Kingfisher’s sideline.“ We were convinced we could win the game going in and weren’t surprised we were up,” Roof said. “We were just more in shock that we couldn’t finish it.”Perry threw for 200 yards with 133 coming in the fourth quarter.

Knighten had just 92 yards on 19 carries. He had 80 on his first two touches.

Birdwell ran for more than 100 yards, but lost yardage on sacks saw his total drop to 82 on 25 carries.

He was 16 of 23 passing for 264 yards. He had two interceptions.

Blair caught six of those passes for 98 yards. Burnham hauled in four for 84 yards and Willbanks caught three for 62 yards.

Ryker Long led the defense with eight total tackles. Brody Boeckman added six tackles and one-half sack. He shared that sack with Reagan, who had three total tackles for loss among his four tackles. He also had three quarterback hurries.

Pauls Valley improved to 4-0 overall with the victory while KHS dropped to 1-3.It was the district 3A-1 opener for both teams.

Kingfisher hosts Purcell this Friday for homecoming. It’s Kingfisher’s first home game since the season opener a month ago.

The Dragons are 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the district. They were defeated 40-10 at home by Plainview last week.