No Hall pass for Jackets

District title hopes are gone.

Now it’s about pride and playing at home.

Kingfisher turned it over six times last Friday night - five times in the first half alone - en route to a 47-21 home loss to Heritage Hall.

The win effectively secured the District 3A-1 title for the Chargers while KHS, unbeaten in district play coining in, has a lot hinging on this week’s regular-season finale at Anadarko.

“We were in the position we wanted to be in, but didn’t take care of the first order ofbusiness,” said KHS head coach Jeff Myers.

The Jackets dropped to 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the district. Anadarko’s lone district loss is also at the hands of the Chargers.

While, officially, a rankings vote by district coaches will determine the final order entering the playoffs, whoever wins this week’s game in Anadarko will earn district runner-up and two home playoff games.

“We have to be able to recognize our mistakes from last week, do what we need to do to correct them and then put it behind us,” Myers said.

Going into the game, Myers said his Jackets would need to be “almost mistake-free” to knock off the second-ranked visitors.

That didn’t happen.

Sophomore quarterback Jax Sternberger had his roughest outing of the season.

Three of his four interceptions came in the first half and he also fumbled it once. Those led to 16 Heritage Hall points.

Another fumble by Cade Stephenson, after gaining 25 yards on a run, led to another Charger TD.

“Our margin of error is very thin against a team like Heritage Hall, which doesn’t do anything to get itself beat,” Myers said. “And we made several of them.”

The Chargers drove 80 yards on their first possession to take an early 7-0 lead.

The Jackets couldn’t answer and were forced to punt, that proved to be one of their more fruitful possessions.

Their next three drives ended with turnovers.

The Chargers led 23-0 midway through the second quarter before the Jackets could find some good news.

It came when Sternberger hit Stephenson for a 77-yard touchdown to pull KHS within 23-7 at 5:34 of the second.

But Heritage Hall had an answer.

River Faulkner found a crack in the defense and turned it into his second TD run of the game, this one from 40 yards.

“Our defense did some things early to put them behind the chains for thirdand-long, but we gave up a big play that resulted in a score,” Myers said.

Stephenson was fighting for exlia yards on his long run on the next possession, but was stripped. The Chargers scored again to push it to 37-7 by halftime.

It grew to 40-7 in the third before Sternberger hit Caleb Dick with a pass over the middle. Dick made a solid cut to get by one would-be tackler, then outraced the rest of the Chargers for an 83-yard score.

After Heritage Hall led 47-14, the Jackets put together one last scoring drive that ended with Stephenson’s 3-yard touchdown run.

Sternberger completed 14 of 24 passes for 261 yards.

Stephenson caught six for 104 yards while Jarret Birdwell tallied 60 yards on his four grabs.

The Chargers were able to limit Kingfisher on the ground.

Stephenson had 71 yards on six carries.

The Chargers’ William Paque was only 10 of 21. However, his passes covered 167 yards.

Faulkner garnered 117 yards on just 13 carries.

The Chargers out-gained KHS 205-52 on the ground and had just one turnover.

“They were able to run it effectively and take care of the ball,” Myers said. “That’s part of what makes them so tough to beat.”

Stephenson, Slade Snodgrass and Harrison Evans had seven tackles apiece.

T.J. Parker and Alan Munoz were in on six each.