Sulphur suffocates KHS in first round
Reagan Roof was fully aware Sulphur was an excellent football team.
But as he sat down about 10 days ago to start breaking down film in preparation to play the Bulldogs, he came to a realization.
“That was the best team I’ve ever had to prepare for,” said the veteran coach.
“They’re for sure the most complete team.”
The third-ranked Bulldogs had all of their completeness on full display on their home field last Friday as they dismantled Kingfisher 66-0 in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs.
“We knew that to be able to stay in the game, some things were going to have to go our way early,” Roof said.
“The complete opposite of that happened.”
Indeed it did. Sulphur drove 70 yards on its first possession to take an 8-0 lead, then scored two straight defensive touchdowns against the Jackets.
One was a 29-yard interception return by Maddax Mobly on Kingfisher’s first offensive possession and the other a 75-yard fumble return by Cash Matlack on the second possession.
Less than halfway through the first quarter and KHS trailed 21-0.
It didn’t get any better. Before the end of the first quarter, Sulphur got a 74-yard touchdown run from Austin Garrett on a play that saw the Bulldogs facing 2nd-and-42 and also picked off one more pass.
All told, the Bulldogs forced four KHS turnovers and scored on three of them.
They held KHS to two first downs and 71 total yards while gaining 383 of their own.
It was Kingfisher’s second straight loss to Sulphur in the first round. Last year’s game ended 42-7.
For Sulphur, it was a 10th straight win as it improved to 10-1. The Bulldogs host Idabel in the quarterfinals this week.
For KHS, it was a rough ending to a season that had a couple of rough patches, but also exceeded expectations in a lot of ways.
Kingfisher ended the year with a 5-6 mark. The Jackets were 4-3 in the ultra-competitive District 3A-1.
“I’ve never had a season with that many close games,” Roof said. “It was a season of ‘what ifs’ and ‘what could have been,’” he said.
KHS took Clinton into overtime in Week 2 before losing. The Red Tornadoes are preparing for the Class 4A quarterfinals this week.
The Jackets played four teams in the district that were ranked in the top five when the game took place.
They lost 43-40 at Pauls Valley after leading by two scores in the fourth quarter. Pauls Valley is in the 3A quarterfinals this week.
They lost 46-23 at Heritage Hall and only trailed by 10 points entering the fourth.
They beat North Rock Creek 45-41 after trailing by 10 points with just over 4:00 to play in that game.
They lost 15-13 on the final play of the game to Plainview in Week 10.
The Jackets got into the playoffs by two points. They were also that many points from being second in the district.
“I don’t know what expectations were before the season, but I feel like we became a better team than a lot of people thought we were going to be,” Roof said.
He credits the group of 12 seniors - many of whom played major roles throughout the year - for making that happen: Paytun Burnham, Jairo Velarde, Daniel Guerrero, Chace Cooper, Jake Sisk, Santiago Ortega, Robert Barnett, Landon Schroeder, Jose Santoyo, Ryker Long, Bert Haag and Landon Rempe.
“That class did a really good job of keeping us focused each week,” Roof said. “They made sure we were getting better and that we played hard on Friday nights.”
They also extended Kingfisher’s playoff streak, which now stands at a quarter- century long.
“That was important to them,” Roof said. “They felt a lot of pressure to do that, so it was good to see them accomplish it.”