Del City weathers the swarm

Eagles outlast Choctaw in the rain, 22-20

Del City’s fifth-ranked Eagles were clinging to a two-point lead late in the fourth quarter as No. 8 Choctaw was on a mission to tie the game.
Sophomore running back Corey Williams capped an aggressive Choctaw drive with a three-yard touchdown run with just over three minutes to play. However, Del City stopped Williams just short of the end zone on a two-point effort.
Sitting ahead of the Yellowjackets 22-20,

Choctaw’s Gabe Johnson leaves the Del City defense behind as he dashes toward the end zone. Johnson had two TDs and 133 of Choctaw’s 235 yards. Caden Young had a 61-yard reception, while Zane Coleman had 10 yards. Deysean Moore led rushing with 15 yards, while Corey Williams and Blake Muse each ran for nine. (Photo by Ryan Horton)

Del City’s offense worked to run down the clock.
Choctaw got the ball back around midfield with 48 seconds remaining, but the Yellowjackets couldn’t get within striking distance in the final minute.
Del City (3-1, 1-0) escaped a late rally from Choctaw (2-2, 0-1) and claimed a 22-20 victory to open District 6A-II-1 play.
Del City jumped to a 6-0 lead, but Choctaw answered and moved to lead 7-6 by the end of the first quarter.
Choctaw was having difficulty running the ball early, but the CHS defense and special teams was putting in solid work.
Choctaw blocked both PATs on Del City’s first two TDs, and the Jacket defense repeatedly shutdown the Eagles in red zone.
However, before halftime a snap would go over the fingertips of punter Zane Coleman and out of the end zone for a safety.
Del City got their two points back, and they’d ultimately be the difference.
CHS built momentum as the night went on, but Del City was able to weather the barrage led by the arm of Thad Williams.
On Del City’s first and only scoring drive of the second half they had given up on kicking but successfully passed for a two-point conversion.
After a slow start, Choctaw outscored the Eagles 13-7 after the break, but it was too little, too late.
Choctaw had trouble getting their run game going throughout the rainy Friday night, and put up just 235 total yards.
Williams threw for 204 of those yards as Gabe Johnson caught five passes for 133 yards and two TDs.
The loss was Choctaw’s second in a row, but coaches saw much improvement despite the outcome.
“I’m proud of our kids bouncing back from a week ago. Del City is a really good team, and my hat’s off to them. Our kids are going to fight tooth and nail to the end. There were some athletic matchups that are difficult for us in a game like this, and I thought we did a good job of minimizing those,” said CHS head coach Jake Corbin. “I thought our kids played through a lot of adversity. Obviously, you want to win but we’re making constant improvement. I’m proud of our kids and how they battled.”
Choctaw now looks toward getting the offense firing on all cylinders as district play continues.
“Not being able to get the run game going hurt us, but we’ll get back to work and try to get it figured out for next week,” said Corbin.
The Jackets hope to claim a district win this week and start their climb of the district ladder.
Stillwater (4-0), Midwest City (3-1), Del City (3-1) and Putnam West (1-3) have all claimed a district win.
This week Choctaw looks to recover at Homecoming 2018.
Kickoff against Putnam City (0-4, 0-1) is 7 p.m. at CHS.