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Big plays and turnovers.

Perkins-Tryon had a few more of the former and none of the latter.

All together, that helped the Demons keep Kingfisher winless on the season.

The visitors scored three firsthalf touchdowns and then held off all of Kingfisher’s late rally attempts last Friday in a 21-7 victory.

With the loss in the District 3A-1 opener for both teams, KHS is now 0-4 on the season while Perkins-Tryon moved to 3-1.

“Just a few plays made the difference in this game,” said head coach Jeff Myers. “They were able to make them and we weren’t, but I do feel like we can pull a lot of good from the game.”

All of the big plays for Perkins- Tryon came in the first half.

The Demons’ Beck Smith dropped a 29-yard touchdown pass into the arms of Cutter Greene on a 4th-and-9 play with 2:30 left in the first quarter.

Greene later found the edge on a sweep play and raced 55 yards for a touchdown.

Then, later in the first half, Perkins again converted a big fourthdown play to help set up a 2-yard run by Trey Stevenson, giving the Demons a 21-0 lead.

But, offensively, that was it for the Demons.

All seven of their second-half possessions ended with a punt as Kingfisher’s defense continued to be stingy against the run and quit surrendering the big play.

“Defensively, I felt we played our best game of the year,” Myers said. “Take away two to three plays and we pretty much dominated them.”

Perkins averaged nearly 180 rushing yards entering the night, but mustered just 51 against the Jackets on 34 attempts.

“I was really proud of our frontfour on defense and our linebackers were really good, too,” Myers said.

Defensive end Jake Reagan had eight tackles, including two for a loss as well as a sack.

“He played like we know he’s capable of playing,” Myers said.

Daniel Guerrero added six tackles while Jose Santoyo had five.

They helped shut down Stevenson who had just 25 yards on 13 carries.

ButKingfisher’soffensecouldn’t consistently match those results, especially in the first half.

The Jackets had one first down, 48 total yards and averaged 2.0 yards per snap in the first half.

The second half - starting with their first possession - showed a different team.

KHS drove near the Perkins red zone for the first time of the night. It appeared as the drive might stall as the Jackets faced 3rd and- 19.

But that’s when the crowd was brought to its feet as Jhett Birdwell found fellow sophomore Jackson Willbanks on a post pattern.

Willbanks, playing his first game of the season due to a leg injury suffered during last track season, hauled in the pass that was dropped over a defender and raced into the end zone for a 39-yard score.

“We threw the ball really well coming out of the halftime break,” said co-offensive coordinator Derek Patterson. “We were able to correct some busts during halftime that we were seeing from the offensive line and receivers.”

KHS appeared to keep the momentum two drives later when the Jackets drove deep into the Demons’ red zone.

However, Birdwell’s pass into the end zone was picked off by Dylan Davidson.

Then, late in the third quarter when KHS again had great field position, Davidson snagged another Birdwell pass, his third takeaway of the game.

“The turnovers were unfortunate and untimely because I really thought we out-played them on both sides of the ball outside of that,” Patterson said.

Davidson was also a big factor with his leg.

The senior punted 10 times and averaged 40 yards a kick. The Jackets’ field position in the first half reflected his ability.

“And then we just couldn’t find our rhythm,” Myers said.

Neither team made a legitimate scoring threat in the fourth quarter.

By the end of the night, KHS had out-gained its guests 229-179.

The Jackets had more yards rushing (99 to 51) and passing (130 to 128).

“It was their couple of big plays and they won the turnover battle,” Myers said.

Birdwell, starting for the first time in his career after the broken wrist by Paytun Burnham two weeks ago at Chisholm, got his yards on 12 of 27 passing.

He added 63 rushing yards on 17 carries while Dallen Barton added 36 on 13 carries.

Willbanks caught two passes on the night for 52 yards. Damien Haynes added four for 35 yards.

Also on defense, Tanner Parker had six tackles while fellow linebacker Jairo Velarde chipped in with five.

The second half - when both offense and defense played well - gave the team a building block into the next couple of weeks, hinted Myers.

The Jackets (0-4, 0-1) will host Mount St. Mary (2-2, 0-1) for homecoming on Friday night.

That’s the first of two straight games that might very well determine the Jackets’ playoff fate.

Kingfisher hasn’t missed the playoffs since 1999.

“If we are the team we were in the second half against Perkins, then we’ll give ourselves a chance,” Myers said. “Coming out of the locker room, we had two options: To fight our way back into that game or to fold. We fought and that showed us something.

“Obviously we can’t take any opponent for granted and this week is no exception. At the same time, we also feel that second half last week can be a good building block for the rest of the season. We’ve just got to find a way to get all three phases of our team playing well at the same time.”