Lawton High’s Jayquan Lincoln, left, breaks away from a MacArthur defender for a touchdown. The senior finished with four catches for 106 yards.
It is said speed kills in the game of football, and Miles Davis had plenty of it on Friday night.
The junior led Lawton to an impressive 50-20 win over city rival MacArthur at Cameron Stadium, rushing for 192 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries. It was the Wolverines’ largest margin of victory against the Highlanders since 2010 — a 41-9 decision.
LHS coach Randy Breeze had high praise for Davis following the Wolverines’ first win against Mac since 2013.
“I’m prejudice, but Miles Davis is the best running back in the state of Oklahoma,” Breeze said. “I’ve been saying that for a while, and I think the secret is out. He’s a very, very special player. He may not be tall, but he’s definitely not small.
“He’s got great vision and unbelievable feet and speed — he’s everything you want in a running back.”
Davis ran for 297 yards last week against Carl Albert, and though he had less yardage this time around, he felt better about his performance.
“I think it was amazing compared to last week,” Davis said. “Last week, I had one touchdown, and now I’m improving more and more.”
The Highlanders (1-1) struck first with a 4-yard touchdown run from Racer Felter to take a 7-0 lead halfway through the first quarter, but Davis and the LHS offense were ready to respond.
Less than a minute later, Davis broke free for his first touchdown — a 54-yard burst — giving the Wolverines (1-1) a lead they wouldn’t relinquish after a successful two-point conversion attempt.
Mac had success moving the ball early, but Jordun Caradine intercepted Felter and JR Winningham on consecutive drives, derailing any momentum the Highlanders sought to build.
Felter, who rushed for 138 yards and five touchdowns a week prior, was limited to 61 yards and one score on 13 carries.
LHS failed to find the end zone after the first turnover, but quarterback Alihas Hopper made Mac pay for the second, delivering a 90-yard touchdown strike to Jayquan Lincoln, giving the Wolverines a 15-7 lead late in the first quarter.
Hopper wasn’t done there, though.
He extended the LHS advantage to two scores early in the second with a 1-yard run, and Calvin Shannon added to the lead on the Highlanders’ next drive, returning an interception 67 yards for a touchdown to bring the score to 29-7 with 4:43 left in the half.
“They got on us from the beginning,” Mac coach Brett Manning said. “We felt like we had a chance and got some stuff going, but turnovers and missed tackles just continued to hurt us.”
Shannon’s pick-six was the Wolverines’ third interception of the game, and Breeze said he was happy with the secondary’s improvement from last week, when it gave up 210 yards passing and a touchdown to CA’s freshman quarterback Ben Harris.
Against the Highlanders, however, LHS gave up only 99 yards passing and no touchdowns.
A week after racking up more than 500 yards of offense, Mac could muster only 320 total yards against the stingy Wolverine defense.
“I think our defensive front put a lot of pressure on them,” Breeze said. “They had to throw on time — they didn’t have time to wait around back there — and our secondary covered everybody up really well. The secondary played a great football game.”
Nick Mahan, who finished with 120 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 29 carries, managed to put the Highlanders on the board again just before halftime, but it made little difference.
Davis found room and rumbled 33 yards on the first play of the second half, and he finished off a quick drive shortly after with a 6-yard touchdown run, bringing the score to 36-13.
A muffed return on the ensuing kickoff gave LHS the ball back seconds later, and Davis answered with his final score of the night on a 31-yard run.
A quick defensive stop put the ball in the Wolverines’ hands less than two minutes later, and Hopper struck again, finding Dominick Neal for a 48-yard touchdown pass to give LHS an unforeseen 50-13 lead.
Hopper finished with 173 yards passing and two touchdowns to go along with his rushing score, completing 8 of 11 throws.
Breeze said the biggest difference from the 33-32 loss to the Titans in Week 1 was the elimination of first-game mistakes.
“(Mistakes) are going to be there, you know they’re going to be there and they’re always going to upset you,” Breeze said. “But the biggest improvement every year is the improvement from Game 1 to Game 2, and that showed tonight.”
Manning took responsibility for his team’s first regular season loss since Oct. 16, 2014, but he said if the Highlanders remain positive, they can improve moving forward.
“I think you learn a lot when you lose,” Manning said. “It’s no fun going through, but if you look at it the right way and you stay positive, you can learn way more from a loss than you can a win.”
LHS is now one win away from claiming its first city championship since 2013, and it will face Eisenhower (0-2) next Friday with a chance to do just that.
“It’s going to make me feel nice,” Davis said. “Ever since I’ve been at Lawton High, we have never won city. Now we have a chance to win everything.”