Midwest City made sure that Lawton High School running back Miles Davis wasn’t going to beat them during Thursday’s meeting last week in the District 6AII-I opener for both teams. Now the Wolverines must put that loss behind and prepare for Friday’s home battle with Deer Creek. (Jeff Harrison/Midwest City Beacon)
Lawton High football coach Ryan Breeze met with The Lawton Constitution’s Kevin Green ahead of the Wolverines’ Friday night matchup with Deer Creek at Cameron Stadium.
Breeze discussed a variety of topics, most of which stemmed from the loss to Midwest City last Thursday.
Fake punt fiasco
After Miles Davis burst into the end zone for a 3-yard score with 9:28 remaining in the third quarter, LHS had a 39-28 lead over No. 4 Midwest City and seemed poised to pull off the upset.
The Wolverines’ defense then forced a 3-and-out on the Bombers’ next drive to give the offense, which racked up with 432 yards, a chance to make it a three-score game.
Or so it seemed.
Facing a 4th-and-15 from the 50-yard line, Midwest City punter Elliot Janish lined up for what LHS expected to be a boot down the field to Davis, who had already returned one punt for a 57-yard touchdown. Instead, Janish showed off his throwing ability, dumping off a short pass to Sam Sissions, who took it 45 yards down the left sideline.
The trick play provided Midwest City with the momentum shift it needed, and the Bombers went on to outscore the Wolverines, 28-6, the rest of the way, notching a 56-45 win in the process.
Breeze said there were five plays that were huge in determining the outcome of the game, and the fake punt was one of them.
“On the fake punt, we had someone assigned to (Sissions), and we let him go,” Breeze said. “They converted, and we can’t do that to beat the No. 4 in the state on the road. You have to make that play.”
Missed conversions
LHS had several opportunities to score, both early and late, that would’ve certainly given it a better chance to win.
Leading 12-7, the Wolverines drove 55 yards to the Midwest City 11-yard line and looked primed to extend the advantage to double-digits.
On fourth down, Eric Wiley found Demarcus Andrews open on a slant, but Andrews couldn’t quite hang on to it, turning the ball over on downs.
Davis scored on the punt return at the end of the Bombers’ next drive, so if the Wolverines had scored on that slant pass only a few minutes prior, they could’ve been looking at a 26-7 lead rather than 19-7.
In the third quarter, LHS had the ball at the Midwest City 38, but Wiley underthrew Chateau Reed and was intercepted at the 1.
That was one of few misfires between the pair, for Wiley and Reed connected six times for 185 yards and three touchdowns. Wiley finished with 243 yards passing, three scores and an interception while completing 11 of 24 throws.
One of the touchdown connections came on a 3rd-and-19 play in the first quarter in which Wiley found Reed streaking open along the right sideline for a 78-yard strike.
“I thought (Wiley) played extremely well,” Breeze said. “We had a 3rd-and-long, and it was the first time they used a different coverage, but he gets the ball to Chateau and puts it on the money. Chateau made some big-time plays and big-time catches.”
Then, in the fourth with less than seven minutes to play, the Wolverines, leading 45-41, were trying to chew some time off the clock, and despite facing a 4th-and-one in their own territory, Breeze decided to go for it.
Unfortunately, a false start, followed by a delay of game penalty, derailed any chance of a conversion, and LHS was forced to punt.
“We have to eliminate (drops and penalties) to win that kind of game,” Breeze said. “I feel like we should’ve won that game by double-digits, and we had a chance to do it early and had a double-digit lead late still, but we didn’t. We’ve been telling the kids all week that we don’t think the best team won, and that’s no knock on Midwest City. Midwest City won the football, and they are very good. We came out of there really sour because we didn’t play our best game.”
Defensive issues
As much success as the Wolverines’ offense had, the Bombers’ had even more.
Midwest City finished with 599 yards of offense, and if not for an errant snap over the punter’s head in the first quarter that lost the team 21 yards, it would’ve come away with well over 600 yards.
Quarterback Preston Colbert had a lot to do with that, throwing for 375 yards and four touchdowns in his first game action since Week 1.
Breeze said though the secondary must do a better job of breaking on balls, the defensive line has to get more pressure on the quarterback. LHS’s first and only sack of the game came late in the fourth quarter when Hector Becerra took Colbert down on a fourth down from the Wolverines’ 30.
“We have to do a better job of rushing the passer,” Breeze said. “In the back end, there were multiple balls that should’ve been intercepted but weren’t. We’re going to rev that up and move some people around to get more pressure on the quarterback on 3rd-and-longs.”
However, Breeze said he knows putting pressure on Colbert was a lot to ask considering the style of offense the Bombers run. There were certain situations, though, where Colbert had too much time.
On one occasion in the third quarter, it appeared the defense had Colbert bottled up, but he was able to escape and deliver a 31-yard touchdown pass to Andre Miles.
Miles was one of two receivers who surpassed the century mark for Midwest City, accumulating 137 yards and two touchdowns. The other was Jerome Brown, who finished with 138 yards and two touchdowns.
“The bulk of their offense was RPOs (run-pass options), so the ball was going pretty quick, and we couldn’t get to (Colbert),” Breeze said. “But the in 3rd-and-long situations — the obvious passing downs — our pass rush was nonexistent. I think he threw a touchdown on 4th-and-10 and a touchdown on 3rd-and-10, and we didn’t get after him like we should’ve with our pass rush.
“That’s something we’re going to work on. We’re going to take our weakness and focus on it this week, try to improve on it and hopefully it gets better.”