ELGIN — A combination of untimely mistakes and missed opportunities was too much to overcome for Elgin.
The Owls gave themselves a chance to win their District 4A-1 opener against Elk City, but several mishaps led them to a 35-14 loss at home on Friday night.
“Sometimes we just can’t get out of our own way,” Elgin coach Curtis Lorah said. “We’ll have a good play, and then we’ll have a mental breakdown or a bust or a silly penalty.”
Despite surrendering only one turnover, the Owls (1-3, 0-1) committed plenty of other errors, with the first coming before the game could even begin.
Elgin, wanting to bounce back from its loss to Anadarko last week, didn’t get off to the start it desired, receiving a delay of game penalty on the opening kickoff after trying to confuse the Elks with multiple formations.
Elk City (3-1, 1-0) delivered a methodical drive in response, coming within striking distance deep in Owls territory.
However, Elgin’s defense stood its ground and came away with a stop inside the 20-yard line on a fourth-down attempt — or so it seemed.
The Owls were called for defensive holding on the play that would’ve given them the ball back, and Elks quarterback Chipper Skelton took advantage, finding Ethan Hebel for an 11-yard touchdown to give Elk City a 7-0 lead with 8:13 left in the first quarter.
The touchdown pass was the first of three for Skelton, who finished with 320 yards through the air on 22-of-38 passing. The senior also had a rushing score.
“That quarterback — boy, he did a great job,” Lorah said. “He found open receivers all night long, and that is the key to their game. They ultimately had great success in the passing game.”
The Elks put together another long drive on their next possession, getting inside the Owls’ 10-yard line, but once again, Elgin’s defense seemingly answered the call.
As running back Hunter Gholston powered his way into the defensive line and began making a final push for the end zone, the ball came free, and the Owls were all over it.
Unfortunately, a referee blunder reversed the turnover shortly after the offense made its way back onto the field.
It was the turning point of the game, and the Elks wasted little time scoring after the reversal, as Gholston atoned for his near-error with a 7-yard touchdown catch from Skelter to put the score at 14-0 early in the second quarter.
“There was an inadvertent whistle, I believe, and it took the wind out of our sail a little bit,” Lorah said. “I thought we got us a big stop and had a little momentum I thought we could build on, but that call was reversed.
“That was a tough one for us, but we came back and fought back a little bit, but you have to give it to Elk City.”
That was only the beginning of Elgin’s misfortunes, though.
A 2-yard punt from the Owls later in the quarter gave the Elks great field possession, and Skelter extended the lead to 21-0 with his third and final touchdown pass, a 6-yard dart to Tyler Green.
The Owls had chances to answer, coming within 25 yards of the end zone on multiple drives throughout the night, but most of the trips came up fruitless.
Lorah said the offense’s inability to capitalize on opportunities had a negative effect on the defense as well.
“We kind of sputtered a couple of times there when we got inside the 25, and we just got into fourth-down situations and couldn’t convert and couldn’t keep it going,” Lorah said. “That’s really hard on the defense, and the defense was out there a lot tonight. It’s tough for them to be out there that long during a game.”
Lewis Shepherd gave Elgin some life with a 78-yard touchdown run with 6:40 remaining in the contest to pull the Owls within two scores at 28-14, but an 11-yard touchdown run from Gholston on Elk City’s next possession put the game out of reach for good.
Shepherd finished with 157 yards rushing on 24 carries.
“I was hoping that would bring up momentum for the team because that’s all of us working together,” Shepherd said. “But sometimes things don’t go as you planned, so we can’t think about that right now.”
Elgin’s only other touchdown came when Rivers Johnson scored from 3 yards out with 29 seconds remaining in the first half, bringing the tally to 21-7.
Johnson, who started at quarterback for the first time this season, finished with 76 yards rushing on 17 carries.
Braeden Shackelford did most of the throwing, but it wasn’t for much. He finished with only 12 yards passing, completing 3 of 9 throws.
“Rivers adds that spark that we’ve been looking for,” Lorah said. “He has the capability to make a big play, so he’s a good one to have in there at quarterback. Shackelford does a good job too, but we just need to grow some confidence in our passing game.”
Lorah said the Owls have many things to work on moving forward, and the best thing they can do now is watch film and hope to learn from their missteps in time for next week’s rivalry game against Cache (3-1, 1-0) on the road.
“It’s hard to tell now (what led to our downfall), but we’ll look at the tape and see what we had, regroup and get ready for next week,” Lorah said. “If we could just get out of our own way and let the game play between the lines, we’d be OK, I think.”