Titans dominate Bombers

By Jeff Harrison
Midwest City Beacon

Carl Albert opened their season in commanding fashion Friday night, rolling past rival Midwest City 41-8 at Jim Darnell Stadium.

The win gave the Titans (1-0) bragging rights, but head coach Mike Dunn wasn’t satisfied with the performance.

“It was so sloppy. That was the first thing that I thought,” Dunn said during a postgame interview with Oklahoma Sports Network. “Always happy to get a win. I feel like they’re all beautiful. But we work way too hard to come out and do some of those things that we don’t do. Those pre-snap penalties – that’s a lack of focus. And then there’s some things from a penalty standpoint that you just hate to see, especially in the second half when it gets real sloppy like that.”

Despite the miscues, Carl Albert controlled the game behind the stellar play of running back Delijah Matthews. The junior rushed for 197 yards and four touchdowns, while also catching three passes for 32 yards.

“I’ve always been mentioned as a receiving back,” Matthews said in an interview with OSN. “I like to catch. I think I can catch if I need to do something.”

Sophomore Tylir Simmons also had a rushing touchdown for the Titans.

Quarterback Andy Collier looked sharp in his first varsity start, completing 13 of 18 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown. He connected with Makauri Johnson on an eight-yard fade in the second quarter, pushing the lead to 28-0.
Matthews capped the first half with a six-yard score, giving the Titans a 34-0 advantage at the break. On the first play of the third quarter, he broke loose for a 46-yard touchdown to make it 41-0.

Midwest City (0-2) avoided a shutout with a late touchdown. Quarterback Lincoln King connected with Joshua Brown on a 14-yard strike in the fourth quarter.

King admitted the Bombers still have work to do.

“We did so much better this week. But still, we had a tougher opponent, and we knew that coming into this game,” King said in an interview with OSN. “We had some stuff that just went wrong. It’s one of those things that just happens.”

First-year Bomber head coach Jacques Washington focused on the positives, especially his team’s effort.

“What we’re doing right now is learning lessons,” Washington told OSN. “A lot of those things that happened out there, we helped Carl Albert win. But what I’m appreciative of is how these kids just kept fighting to the end of the game. They could have just quit, but they kept fighting. I noticed a lot of improvement… It’s small victories right now, the improvement in tackling, playing assignment football. We’ve just got to take care of the ball and create takeaways.”

Midwest City travels to Putnam City West (0-2) on Thursday, Sept. 11. The Patriots are also looking for their first win after a 75-0 drubbing by Putnam City last week.

Carl Albert will host Lawton Eisenhower (0-2) on Friday.

Dunn said despite the win, the Titans must clean things up moving forward.

“It was definitely a team effort,” he said. “Always proud to have a win, and it’s always good to come over here and get a win. But we’ve got to grow.”