El Reno: Bend but don’t break D
El Reno: Bend but don’t break
El Reno has made a living with defense this season and that was the case in its win over McAlester as the Indians used a goal line stand to hold off McAlester 21-14 Friday night. While it was a nice way to end the game, it’s not exactly surprising.
”They marched down the field on that drive and got into the red zone,” El Reno defensive back Cory Dauphin said. “That’s how we’ve played all year. Bend but don’t break. We buckle down in the red zone. We have a lot of confidence playing with our backs against the wall.”
Coming up huge was senior Matt Pruitt. He had 22 tackles (17 of them unassisted) and also had an interception and scored the game-winning touchdown.
El Reno (12-0) plays Carl Albert (10-2) in a Class 5A semifinal Friday night at Putnam City Stadium.
SAQ: McAlester-El Reno
Your Saturday Afternoon Quarterback look at El Reno’s 21-14 win over McAlester.
First, a few thoughts that didn’t make it into the game story in Saturday’s paper:
Remember the name Tony Kiefer. The McAlester quarterback is just a sophomore, and he’ll only get better. That’s saying a lot, because he was pretty good Friday night, particularly in the toughness category. He had to carry the ball 38 times. In the first half, only one play wasn’t a run or pass by Kiefer.
He threw the screen and mid-range routes well, but struggled with some of his deep throws. Of course, that only means he’s like 90 percent of the high school QBs in the state. Kiefer’s biggest problem when he went deep was that he got too much air under his throws, turning a lot of them into jump-balls. That’s fixable. Kiefer and McAlester will be good the next two years.
McAlester breakdown: The Buffs just couldn’t get it done inside the El Reno 30. In addition to the three stops El Reno made inside the 10, McAlester had a turnover on downs at the 28 and a missed field goal after reaching the 12, as well as another turnover on downs at the ER 39.
Those struggles were damaging for another reason beyond the obvious. Most of them came at the end of long, grinding, time-consuming drives, so it gave the Buffs less time and less energy for their rally. The El Reno offense couldn’t do much of anything in the third quarter. It had only one first down, so McAlester spent a lot of time on offense in the third.
McAlester had 121 more yards and 16 more first downs than El Reno, but the Indians made game-changing plays, and the Buffs didn’t.
El Reno breakdown: The numbers in the paragraph above might suggest that the El Reno offense wasn’t all that sharp, but that’s not the case at all. McAlester had the ball so much, that El Reno ran only 40 offensive plays, compared to 77 for McAlester.
The El Reno defense got hit by the big play early. McAlester’s first three offensive snaps went for 12, 23 and 28 yards. But of the next 74 plays, only nine went for double-digit gains. And all three interceptions were big, but especially the two picks that came inside the 5-yard line.
And the Indians have a pretty good kicker, too. Joseph Vorva, a sophomore backup quarterback, had plenty of leg on a 40-yard field goal try that was just a little wide in the fourth quarter.
Up next: Next year, this will be a district game, but for now, it’s a 5A semifinal. El Reno vs. Carl Albert will be played Friday night at 7:30 at Putnam City Stadium after CA knocked off Tulsa Kelley in overtime Friday night. The winner gets the Bixby-Guthrie winner for the 5A title.
Semifinal sites set
Here’s the semifinal times/dates:
Class 6A
Jenks vs. Southmoore, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Putnam City Stadium
Tulsa Union vs. Broken Arrow, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, University of Tulsa
Class 5A
El Reno vs. Carl Albert, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Putnam City Stadium
Bixby vs. Guthrie, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Stillwater High School
Class 4A
Weatherford vs. Douglass, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Yukon
Star Spencer vs. Sallisaw, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sapulpa
Class 3A
Seq. Claremore vs. Cascia Hall, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Collinsville
Berryhill vs. Dewey, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Skiatook
Class B
Garber vs. Laverne, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Woodward
Ryan vs. Canton, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Norman
Class C
DC-Lamont vs. Timberlake, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Enid
Seiling vs. Forgan, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Woodward
Game blog: McAlester at El Reno
10:12 p.m.: El Reno stopped McAlester quarterback Tony Kiefer at the 1-yard line on fourth-and-goal with :44 left. Two personal-foul penalties on the Buffs moved the ball out of the danger zone and El Reno was able to run out the clock on a 21-14 win.
El Reno advances to the 5A semifinals
El Reno-McAlester preview capsule
McAlester (10-1) at El Reno (11-0)
When: 7:30 tonight
Where: Memorial Stadium, El Reno
Looking ahead: The winner advances to the semifinal round to play the Carl Albert-Tulsa Kelley winner at a neutral site.
Why McAlester could win: Defense. The Buffs are allowing just a touch over 200 yards per game and only one team — Tulsa East Central — has scored more than 18 points against them. McAlester can run the ball, too, which pairs well with a stingy defense in the playoffs, especially on the road.
Why El Reno could win: The Indians have had the total package, with an efficient offense and strong defense, especially when they needed it. This team has had its eyes on the gold ball all year, and they don’t want to see another season end before they get a chance to play for it.
Key stats
Rushing
McAlester: Tony Kiefer, 1,073 yards, 20 TDs; Caleb Carney, 517 yards, 1 TD
El Reno: Jakeil Everheart, 724 yards, 13 TDs; Cory Dauphin, 553 yards, 13 TDs
Passing
McAlester: Kiefer, 135-of-234, 1,656 yards, 15 TDs, 9 INT
El Reno: Everheart, 100-of-181, 1,416 yards, 10 TDs, 4 INT
Receiving
McAlester: Alvery Braxton, 32 rec., 589 yards, 8 TDs; Cody Leflor, 30 rec., 366 yards, 3 TDs
El Reno: Jovia Franklin, 41 rec., 621 yards, 9 TDs; Ray Little, 22 rec., 300 yards, 2 TDs
Defense
McAlester: Jesse Patton, 118 tackles; Tim Curry, 98 tackles, 5 sacks; Delante Redway, 6 INT
El Reno: Tyler Palmer, 102 tackles; Tank Mulanax, 92 tackles; Cody Dauphin, 8 sacks; Matt Pruitt, 6 INT
Key matchup: El Reno run game vs. McAlester defensive front. McAlester is one of the best teams in 5A against the run, allowing barely 100 yards per game. While El Reno is a fairly balanced offense, it does lean a little more toward the run game and will need to establish that to keep the passing attack open.
The pick: El Reno 24-20. I went with ER to win it all in 5A, and I still like them. Jakeil Everheart has the offense looking sharp, averaging nearly 37 points per game the last six weeks. McAlester’s D will provide a challenge, but I think the Indians can handle it.
Rankings Preview: Nov. 15
For one more time before the playoffs end, here’s the rankings in all their glory:
EDIT: I’ve got to get this in above the jump: I messed up in my Class 2A rankings this week. I initially (and in Sunday’s paper) had Washington above Lindsay. Lindsay beat Washington comfortably during the regular season in a win that started the Leopards on a 7-1 run that has them going to Heritage Hall for a second-round playoff game.
Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#11-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#10-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#9-2
4. Southmoore (4)#10-1
5. Midwest City (5)#9-2
6. Bartlesville (6)#9-2
7. Lawton (8)#9-2
8. Edmond Memorial (9)#8-3
9. Putnam North (10)#7-4
10. Mustang (7)#7-4
The top six teams here all win and remain the same. I seriously considered switching Southmoore and Midwest City and would’ve if the Bombers would’ve been more convincing in their win. Mustang drops from No. 7 to 10 after a 38-7 loss to Edmond Memorial. Lawton and Edmond Memorial each moved up a spot. Putnam North, despite the loss, moved up a spot to No. 9.
OKRankings.com Girls Basketball Poll
The OKRankings.com Preseason Girls Basketball Coaches’ poll has been released. These are the rankings that eventually go toward deciding playoff pairings. So here they are (first-place votes in parentheses):
Class 6A
1. Midwest City (18)
2. Tulsa Union (1)
3. Norman
4. Edmond North
5. Edmond Memorial
6. Edmond Santa Fe
7. Lawton
8. Del City (2)
9. Norman North
10. Putnam City North
11. Jenks
12. Broken Arrow
13. Sapulpa
14. Owasso
15. Ponca City
16. Yukon
17. Enid
18. Southmoore
19. Bixby
20. Choctaw
OKRankings.com Boys Basketball poll
The OKRankings.com Preseason Boys Basketball Coaches’ poll has been released. These are the rankings that eventually go toward deciding playoff pairings. So here they are (first-place votes in parentheses):
Class 6A
1. Putnam City (8)
2. Putnam City West (7)
3. Muskogee (4)
4. Southmoore
5. Tulsa Union
6. Jenks
7. Edmond Santa Fe
8. Midwest City
9. Broken Arrow
10. Putnam City North
11. Owasso
12. Edmond Memorial
13. Lawton
14 Enid
15. Choctaw
15. Del City
17. Norman North
18. Edmond North
19. Lawton Eisenhower
20. Norman
Know of a player signing?
With signing day coming up Wednesday, The Oklahoman is once again compiling a list of players across the state who have signed to play college athletics at any level.
If you have a signing to report, e-mail it to Ryan Aber at raber@opubco.com ro post it on the comments section here (on the main high school blog at http://blog.newsok.com/highschoolsports )
Rankings preview: Nov. 8
Sorry for the delay from my usual late Friday night posting. Combination of a long drive back from Glenpool and trying to piece together the playoff brackets left me too tired to think straight last night by the time I would’ve been able to work on them So here they are in all their glory with a little different format this week (and I hope to do Class A-C in a similar format a bit later):
Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#10-0
Why they’re not lower: Because the Trojans are the only team to go 10-0 in Class 6A.
2. Tulsa Union (2)#9-1
Why they’re not higher: Because the Redskins lost head-to-head to Jenks.
Why they’re not lower: Because their only loss is to Jenks (a two-point win) and they beat Broken Arrow — and everyone else — on their schedule.
3. Broken Arrow (3)#8-2
Why they’re not higher: Because the Tigers only two losses came to Jenks and Tulsa Union.
Why they’re not lower: They beat everyone else, including Bartlesville last night. They also own wins over Owasso, Claremore and Tulsa Washington.
4. Southmoore (4)#9-1
Why they’re not higher: Because they’re the only team of these top four to lose to a lower-ranked team. The SaberCats have also found themselves in more close games than any of the top four.
Why they’re not lower: An impressive list of wins in non-district and 6A-1: Edmond Memorial and Midwest City in non-district and Del City, Lawton and Mustang in district play. Other than Jenks, Southmoore has the best list of wins.
5. Midwest City (5)#8-2
Why they’re not higher: The only thing keeping the Bombers this low is non-district losses to Del City and Southmoore and its hard to vault them over the SaberCats with their previously discussed credentials.
Why they’re not lower: They’ve gone through a relatively weak district and done exactly what a really good team should — destroy everyone. The Bombers closest district game was a 22-7 win over 6A-2 runner-up Edmond Memorial. None of the others were decided by less than 29 points.
