Del City tops Coweta for district title

By Jeff Harrison
Midwest City Beacon

COWETA – It didn’t take long for Del City to set the tone last Friday night.

On the second play from scrimmage, senior tailback Rodney Fields blasted through the Coweta defense for a 52-yard sprint to the end zone.

After forcing the Tigers to punt on their first possession, the Eagles struck again two plays later. This time, quarterback River Warren found Tayvonn Johnson down the seam for a 28-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead.

Del City (9-0, 6-0) never slowed down as they rolled Coweta, 43-14, to clinch the District 5A-3 title at Tiger Stadium.

“We’ve been that way all year, our kids come out we play fast,” said Del City coach Robert Jones. “We’re confident. We have a lot of good athletes and we spread the ball around. When our guys are fresh, they’re tough to handle especially at the 5A level.”

The Eagles’ win avenged a loss to the Tigers (6-3, 5-1) that cost them a district title last year.

“We’ve been talking about this since last year since we lost to them,” said senior Braelon Adamah. “They’re a good physical team and I give them that. But we came out and were more physical and more disciplined. We were ready for it.”

Warren threw for 176 yards and three touchdowns in the win.

Ladanian Fields grabbed two of those scores. He finished with five receptions for 143 yards and two touchdowns and had an interception on defense.

Del City continued to show balance offensively with 215 yards rushing and 176 through the air. On defense, they held Coweta to 166 total yards and forced two turnovers. It snapped the Eagles run of three straight shutouts.

“We’re not going to see many teams as physical as them and we handled it and only allowed seven points,” Jones said.

Del City grabbed control early with four scores in the first quarter. Rodney Fields put them on the board with a 52-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. Warren threw touchdown passes to Johnson and Ladanian Fields.

Rodney Fields sandwiched the opening quarter scoring with a seven-yard run and 27-0 lead.

“Anytime we get in a game we feel like we can put it on them right away,” Warren said. “We’re talented enough to do that. I would’ve liked to have come out faster in the second half, but we did what we needed to do. There’s still a lot to work on.”

The Eagles extended their lead to 36-0 on a two-yard touchdown run by Braelon Adamah and two-point conversion from Rodney Fields with 5:31 remaining in the half.

Coweta used the final minutes to the half for their only scoring drive of the night. Tigers running back Lolo Bell scored on a one-yard touchdown run, capping a 12-play, 63-yard drive.

Del City led 36-7 at the half.

In the third quarter, Warren hooked up with Ladanian Fields again on a 13-yard strike across the middle of the end zone. That made it a 43-7 score with 5:32 in the third.

Coweta’s other score came on a fumble recovery on a punt return in the fourth quarter.

“This game was special because of the way we lost to them [Coweta] and McAlester and then to Carl Albert in the playoffs,” Jones said. “We’ve been working towards this all year. When you’re going toward a goal as a group and we continue to progress, to develop players, and see them win big games. It’s a great feeling.”

The Eagles host Durant (5-4, 3-3) Friday night in the final regular season game. They have a chance to earn their first undefeated regular season since 1993.