Size and power up front did not bode well for the Madill Wildcats last week as they dropped a 43-0 district football verdict to Harrah on the road.
The Wildcats will be back home this week for their final regular season contest against another Top 10 ranked opponent in Blanchard, which is coming off its first loss of the season after falling to Tuttle a week ago.
AgainstHarrah,theshorthanded Wildcats found the going tough on the ground offensively, tallying just 19 positive yards rushing. All of those came on two totes by quarterback Baylor Bond.
Bond also added 78 yards passing on the night, hitting seven of 21 pass attempts.
Uziel Flores notched five of the receptions for 34 yards with Talyn Reames grabbing two for 32 and Justin Smith adding one catch for 19 yards.
On the defensive side, Madill yielded a couple of early scores on touchdown passes as Harrah got the air attack going for 215 yards on the night to go along with 280 yards rushing.
The Wildcats appeared on the verge of breaking the shutout early in the second quarter as their best drive of the night got them deep into Panther territory. After the march stalled, however, a field goal attempt was blocked by Harrah and returned 70 yards to paydirt just eight seconds into the second frame.
Harrahalsoaddedasafety on a blocked punt before halftime for a 23-0 advantage at intermission.
“The kids fought hard,” head coach John Heavner said. “We just have to find a way to get more competitive offensively and that falls on me. The strength of our defense has been our front seven and they did a pretty good job stopping the run early. We have to find a way to not bust coverages in the secondary that hurt us a few times.
“Our punt team has been a strength all year but we just bobbled the snap and had some bad luck with the blocked kicks.”
WithBlanchardthisweek, the Wildcats face another explosive unit with size and athleticism that has beaten a couple of Top 10 ranked teams from Class 5A earlier this year.
Due to a variety of injuries that have continued to mount, Madill could be extremely limited in numbers Friday night as well for the home finale.
“We are definitely shorthanded with injuries, especially up front,” Heavner added. “We think we may play this week with about 21 healthy kids suited up. It’s a patch work unit but we’ve been holding it together most of the year.
“Blanchard is a very good football team. They played well against Tuttle. They are incredibly talented, big and fast so it’s going to be a difficult assignment.
“The thing I like about our kids though is their effort every day out there, no matter what situation they are in. And I expect the same come Friday night.”