KINGFISHER — The Weatherford Eagles needed every point they scored in their opening game at Kingfisher.
To say this game came down to the wire was an understatement as Weatherford won the game 50-49 Friday at Kingfisher. Junior running back Sam Hoffman scored four rushing touchdowns and had 174 rushing yards.
“This was a great high school football game to be part of,” coach Reagan Roof said. “We played really well at times, but there were other times where we did not play well because of mental mistakes.”
Right out of the gates, Weatherford was behind. After a fumble on the opening kickoff, which Kingfisher recovered, the Yellowjackets marched down the field and scored an early touchdown.
On the next possession, Weatherford was forced to punt, Gunnar Gaunt’s punt pinned Kingfisher deep in its own territory at the 3 yard line. Two plays later, senior linebacker Murphy Beck and Hoffman tackled Kingfisher’s running back in the own end zone resulting in a safety midway through the first quarter.
“This play not only came down to two players, but it was a team effort,” Hoffman said. “It comes down to the coaches and the team doing everything in unison. We executed that play extremely well.”
Hoffman gave Weatherford its first lead of the game as he scored a 5-yard rushing touchdown, making the score 9-7 with 4:12 left in the first quarter.
Kingfisher scored two touchdowns before the first quarter ended and was ahead 21-9.
In the second quarter, Hoffman scored another touchdown to get Weatherford back in the game with 7:30 left in the second quarter. Kingfisher responded late in the second quarter on a long run play, making the score 28-16 at halftime.
“The only time we were stopped in the first half was when we stopped ourselves and that was what was so frustrating about the first half,” Roof said. “Ninety percent of our mistakes in the first half were mental busts in defensive coverages. It is just the little things we have messed up on such as fumbling the football and some missed assignments here and there. We have to tackle better and we are fortunate to still be in the game. If we fix our mental game and make more tackles, we have a chance to get back in the game.”
Roof said the first series of the second half was huge and the Eagles needed to get a stop and go score on offense. Weatherford got that stop, but it was not on offense. Senior defensive end Ethan Downs stripped the ball away from Yellowjacket running back and took it to the house, making the score 28-22 Kingfisher early in the third quarter.
“I noticed the football was hanging out a little and was loose,” Downs said. “He made a juke move, but I was able to pull the ball out of his arm and I ripped it out and ran. I cramped up at the end of the play and that is something I need to work on with conditioning. We all trust each other and I stepped up when I had to make a play to get back into the game.”
Weatherford got another stop and scored a touchdown on offense as senior wide receiver Malachi Johnson scored a short rushing touchdown, giving Weatherford its second lead of the night at 29-28. Weatherford got another defensive stop and with 3:35 left in the third quarter, Hoffman shot through a gap for a 47-yard touchdown run, making the score 36-28. Hoffman scored another short rushing touchdown, making it his fourth touchdown of the night, giving Weatherford a 43-28 lead at the end of the third quarter.
“It is early in the season and I made some plays, but we have to get better,” Hoffman said. “I need to get better at making guys miss and having better vision on the football field, but this was a team effort.”
In the fourth quarter, Kingfisher did not go away scoring a touchdown on a long pass play.
Weatherford’s defense in the fourth quarter made the difference in the game as Beck had an interception with a little more than 3 minutes left in the game.
“We come together when the game is close or when we trail,” Beck said. “We needed a play on defense and the quarterback made a mistake and threw it to me and I made the catch. We do need to work on a few things such as covering better and reading the offense better.”
Weatherford took advantage of that mistake by Kingfisher as Johnson scored a 1-yard rushing touchdown, making the score 50-36 with 2 minutes left in the game.
Kingfisher scored a touchdown on a pass play, making the score 50-43 with a little more than 2 minutes to go in the game. They tried an onside kick, but the Eagles recovered the kick.
Weatherford attempted to just run the clock out, but a fumble gave Kingfisher the ball back. Kingfisher scored a rushing touchdown and decided to attempt a 2-point conversion to take the lead. Both Weatherford and Kingfisher fans were cheering on their team more than usual during this play and it was Weatherford who came up with the stop as senior defensive back Jacob Wilson intercepted the pass from Kingfisher, keeping the score at 50-49.
“We were running man-toman coverage and we needed to make a play,” Wilson said. “I actually gave up the touchdown before and did not want to make another mistake. I saw the football and just went up and made a play. I need to work on tackling better.”
Weatherford recovered Kingfisher’s second onside kick try and Gaunt took a few kneel downs and Weatherford left Kingfisher with the 1-point win.
“In the third quarter, we played extremely well, but some things did not go our way in the fourth quarter,” Roof said. “I said at halftime we needed a big play to get us going and Ethan’s strip and score was huge. This turned the tide and momentum for the next quarter and a half. Jacob made a huge play getting the interception on the 2-point conversion as well. Give credit to Kingfisher because they are a good football team and they capitalized on some of our mistakes we made in the game.”
Weatherford improves to 1-0 and plays El Reno 7 p.m. Friday in the home opener.
“We have to fix some mistakes,” Roof said. “Most of our mistakes were mental and not doing the little things right. We have to get better going forward, but we are more than capable of doing so.”