Altus High School head football coach Lyn Hepner hopes that a difficult non-district schedule has prepared his team for the district season which gets underway Friday at Chickasha.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs have suffered losses to Vernon, Texas, Lawton Eisenhower and Lawton High School.

With that in mind, Hepner talked to his team about putting those games behind them and moving forward.

“We've talked to them about how the season really begins with the district,” Hepner said. “If we can start off with a win, you can go a long ways to assuring yourself a playoff berth. We talked about playing tough opponents and I hope this is a payoff where we're at a level in which we can compete.”

It was one year ago, the Bulldogs were coming off a major upset of Lawton High as they faced the Fightin' Chicks in the first game of the district.

Altus came out flat in that game, committing six turnovers and they lost the district opener 26-8.

“We've haven't said a lot about last year's game,” Hepner said. “It's understood, we know about it. I thought we were really flat. Hopefully the focus is in the right place this week.”

Chickasha goes into the contest with a 1-2 record. Their victory was a 24-6 win over El Reno in the second week of the season. They lost their season opener to Broken Bow 35-20 and were defeated last week by Anadarko 18-16.

Friday night's game should produce an aerial show as both teams like to throw. Chickasha will employ a spread offense with a shot gun and it is directed by three-year starter Wyatt Kinnamon (6-4, 220 Sr.)

Kinnamon is the second leading passer in Class 5A and he has the first and third leading receivers to throw to in the speedy Joe Euwins (6-2, 175, Sr.) and Brandon Boyd (6-0, 160 Sr.)

Altus sports the third leading passer in Blake Stepanovich and the second and fourth leading receivers in Preston Runyan and Jeremy Bailey.

Stepanvocich has completed 40 of 83 passes for 592 yards and six touchdowns.

Runyan has caught 15 passes for 225 yards and one touchdown. Bailey has made 13 receptions for 160 yards and two scores.

Defensively Chickasha is led by three-year starter at tackle in Elvis Derr (6-0, 275, Sr.). Derr, a state wrestling champion is the most physical player on their defense.

“It almost resembles the Lawton High defense in that they have the tackles that push up field and the secondary is a bend but don't break style. They tend to give you the short pass.”

When you talk keys to victory, it's the same story. The Bulldogs must get off blocks and make tackles on defense.

On offense Altus got inside Lawton High's 30 yard line four times and inside the 10 on two occasions and failed to score. So the key words on offense is execute “finish, close the deal,” Hepner said.

Hepner said he would like to see improvement in special teams where there has been at least one break down in each of the three games.

“We had a big fire up speech at halftime and they (Lawton High) go 70 yards (on the second half kickoff), Hepner said. “It's (kicking game) has been disappointing.”

Bulldog notes: Tobyn Baker has become the iron man of the team. He was on the field for 114 plays counting offense, defense and special teams. Free safety Zach Kiniry injured a knee in a fall league soccer game over the weekend and is questionable for Friday night's game.