Jackets overpower Blackwell, 54-12

For one drive and one play, it appeared the Kingfisher High School football team last week was still stuck in the muck of its Week 3 performance at Bethany.

The Jackets, though, promptly and frequently removed themselves from that rut to hand Blackwell a 54-12 defeat on the Maroons’ homecoming last Friday night.

“I expected us to come out a lot more sharp than we did,” said KHS head coach Jeff Myers. “That didn’t happen, but we finally woke up and took care of business.”

Blackwell drove down the field on its initial drive and took a 6-0 lead on Worthy Shepherd’s 1-yard plunge early in the quarter.

On Kingfisher’s first offensive snap, Caleb Dick was hit for a loss just moments after taking the handoff from Cade Stephenson.

“It wasn’t the ideal start to the game, especially the way we felt coming off last week’s loss at Bethany,” Myers said.

But the fortunes soon turned.

Stephenson launched a 34-yard pass to Clayton Abercrombie, who made a play in the middle of a host of Maroon defenders, and then later found Keaton Abercrombie for a 27-yard score midway through the quarter.

That was the start of 48 straight points by the Jackets, who were opening District 3A-1 play and evened their overall mark at 2-2.

“We had some plays that sort of woke us up,” Myers said. “We fixed a few other things and then started making plays on both sides of the ball.”

Alan Munoz had two sacks on Blackwell’s next possession.

That was the first of seven fruitless possessions by the Maroons.

Stephenson’s 52-yard run on Kingfisher’s next drive set up his own 14-yard TD run less than a minute into the second quarter.

That was the initial one of four KHS TDs in the second frame.

By halftime, KHS led 34-6 as Stephenson had two touchdown runs and two more scoring passes, both to Keaton Abercrombie.

Stephenson added a third scoring run in the third quarter, a 38-yard scamper.

He finished his night with 183 yards on 13 carries. He added another 97 through the air on 5-of-11 passing, although he did have two second-half interceptions.

“We got a little sloppy at times, but overall he was able to take advantage of his playmaking ability,” Myers said of the junior quarterback. “There were plays where they (Blackwell) thought they had him bottled up, but he made something big happen.”

For much of three quarters, Caleb Dick was having a quiet game at tailback.

Although he had a 4-yard scoring run in the second quarter, he finished the half with just 15 yards on nine attempts.

The final 18 minutes of the game were a different story.

The junior had a 38-yard run in the third period and then burst free for an 85-yard touchdown late in the third quarter.

After Blackwell ended Kingfisher’s run early in the fourth quarter, Dick answered with his third touchdown of the night, this one from 34 yards.

By the time the final buzzer sounded, he had a career-high 210 yards on 15 carries.

“He made some nice reads and good cuts,” Myers said. “And I thought our line just continued to wear them down, which made for good running lanes.”

In all, KHS ran for 410 yards and averaged 12.4 yards a carry.

That helped offset Blackwell’s Mikey Riley and Brett Lennon.

Riley threw for 297 yards, although he completed less than half of his 45 attempts.

Lennon caught 11 of those passes for 173 yards, including a 55-yard TD catch.

“He’s a good player and he’s averaged over 100 yards a game,” Myers noted. “He made some plays on us, but we also made some plays against him. When you’re targeted that many times, you’re going to put up some numbers.”

Clayton Abercrombie was tasked with defending Lennon much of the game. He had a team-high eight tackles, an interception and forced a fumble.

Munoz and Riley Myers also had eight tackles apiece. The Jackets dropped Blackwell for a loss seven times, including four sacks.

On offense, Clayton and Keaton Abercrombie had two catches apiece. Clayton’s tallied 47 yards and Keaton’s 37.

KHS had 507 yards altogether.

“We still have some things to patch up, but we achieved our goals, which were to win and improve this week,” Myers said.

Those goals will be much the same this week when KHS travels to Mannford.

The Pirates are 0-4 and are coming off a 49-7 loss to Perkins-Tryon.

“They’ve struggled this season, but they’ve also played a really tough schedule,” Myers said.

Mannford’s four opponents - Perkins, Berryhill, Cleveland and Bristow - are a combined 14-2.

“They’ve played good teams so they won’t be intimidated by anything,” Myers said. “We can’t take anything for granted this week. We have to continue to try to prepare better and play better each week.”