Upon further review: Southmoore even better than 49-28 score against Bartlesville
There were a lot things to take away from Southmoore’s walloping of Bartlesville Friday. We’ll go over a few in a minute, but by far the most important was this: The SaberCats were game ready.
What’s game ready? Everything but the physical aspects of the game — mental focus, attitude, confidence, drive, etc.
This area was strangely absent the week before. But instead of just taking the sluggish 34-32 win over Lawton Eisenhower and moving on, the SaberCats spent all week addressing the fact that they weren’t game ready against the Eagles. It would have been easy to just say that they had overlooked Ike and forget about it. It also would have been easy for the coaches and players to celebrate a last-second win after the handshakes and forget about everything else.
Instead, coach Chris Jensen’s first words were to ask his players if they were awake yet. And the players wouldn’t let the topic die during the week, either. Apparently a couple of players spoke up in the locker room about being game ready from here on out. And it was a great week of practice and players were lauded for how hard they worked.
Well, Southmoore was game ready in a big way against Bartlesville. The SaberCats were as good as they’ve been all season. Actually, given the strength of the opposition (particularly on offense), it was the best they’ve played.
Other things that caught my eye:
* Both sides of the ball were equal: The offense was unstoppable — scoring touchdowns on five consecutive possessions. But the defense was terrific, too. Bartlesville, which came in averaging nearly 40 points per game, has a strong quarterback and a receiving duo as good as any in the state, with the exception of Chris McAlister and Donovon Dan (Del City) and Derek Serowski and Nyko Symonds. But Southmoore basically rendered useless one of the receivers and dominated the QB, constantly harassing him and picking off four passes. Now, give credit to Garrett Powell, the Bartlesville receiver came to play — five catches and a touchdown, an interception and a 60-yard kick return.
* Score didn’t tell show how dominant Southmoore was: The final score was no indication of how the game went. Sure, 49-28 looks pretty nice on the scoreboard, but it could have been a lot worse for the Bruins.
Jensen covered the field with reserves for essentially the entire fourth quarter. Until then, the defense held Bartlesville to 14 points. And those 14 points both came on big plays.
And on offense, 50 points was easily attainable, but Jensen started running the ball to run the clock after his squad went up 42-14. In fact, on the final TD drive 10 of 11 plays were runs. And backup QB, freshman Tre Edwards, came in with 1:41 to play in the third quarter.
* Bruins couldn’t move the ball all night: Bartlesville never drove the ball on the SaberCats. One touchdown was a 60-yard pass play and the drive was just four plays. The other was a 66-yard pass and it was a two-play drive. Otherwise, against the first-string defense, Bartlesville only had one drive of any length and that was its first. The Bruins went 50 yards in 10 plays before Kimes Gilbert picked off QB Kirby Schoenthaler at the line of scrimmage.
After the first series, Bartlesville had 10 straight possessions that lasted four plays or less. That’s impressive.
* Speaking of drives: Southmoore’s offense showed it can beat defenses with a quick strike or can beat them with a sustained drive or it can beat them with a clock-consuming, ball-control grinder of a drive.
The SaberCats did all of the above against the Bruins. Their first drive was the definition of a sustained drive. They went 83 yards in 11 plays. Of the 11, four were pass plays and seven were runs. Fifty one yards came on the ground and 32 through the air. And three different players carried the ball on the drive.
After that, it was like a two-minute drill in fast-forward. In fact, after the 11 play drive, Southmoore scored three touchdowns in their next 11 plays. In succession, there was a four-play drive, a five-play drive and a two-play drive. And all three covered 63 yards or more (the second covered 91).
The next three TDs came on nine-play, 11-play and 11-play drives. All were 65 yards or longer. And, as mentioned before, all the yards on one drive came via the run.
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