The Bulldogs in a lackluster performance lost to the Chickasha Chicks 13-10. However, Altus backed their way into the playoffs because Lawton MacArthur easily defeated Deer Creek and that created a three-way tie for fourth place in the district and the final playoff spot. The Bulldogs won the tie-breaker and the playoff berth.
They have the unenviable task of traveling to Shawnee to face the unbeaten and second ranked Wolves in the first round of the playoffs.
Even though it’s a difficult task, it’s also an opportunity to pull off a big upset.
However, not many are giving the Bulldogs much of a shot and Hepner has addressed that to his team.
“That’s what I told them Hepner said.” Nobody thinks we’ve got a chance. Their coaches (Shawnee coaches who scouted Altus-Chickasha game) left at halftime. “They have no respect for us. They are talking about who they are going to play next week.”
It doesn’t happen often but there are some cases in which a fourth place team in a district traveled and upset the district winner. One of those Hepner pointed out was a 1997 first round game in which the Bulldogs went to Oklahoma City McGuinness. Like this year Altus was 4-6 and Oklahoma City McGuinness was 10-0. The Bulldogs upset the Irish 14-0 and moved to the next round. It was a game that Dusty Davis and Jonathan Lamb a current assistant coaches on the AHS staff played in.
“That’s what we’ve talked about,” Hepner said.
Hepner promised a good effort from his team which he said is not going to throw in the towel.
“We’re definitely not going to do that,” Hepner said. “We are going to go out there and play them the best of our ability. We have had very upbeat practices. We kind of went old school and made everybody go two ways. We had a full practice (on Monday) rather than education; walk through. Tuesday and Wednesdays are our big day. But we had a Tuesday practice on Monday. We repeated that on Tuesday and we kind of backed off on that Wednesday to get their legs back under them. Thursday we’ll have walk through and Friday go do it.”
Shawnee is a team that loves to throw the football. Their spread offense centers around quarterback Brayle Brown, (6-4, 185, Jr.) the son of head coach Billy Brown. Brown is the second leading passer in Class 5A in terms of passing yardage
“It’s the same offense we have lined up against in the past three weeks,” Hepner said. “They have a good running back, an adequate offensive line and some pretty good receivers.”
Defensively the Wolves employ an old fashioned 5-2 alignment something that you don’t see much of in high school football these days. They are a very aggressive blitzing type defense.
“People have scored on them but they always to hold them to less, than their offense scores,” Hepner said.
Keys to Victory
Here’s what Hepner outlined in his scouting report to players
Offense – They will DARE us to pass. We must protect, throw and catch. Control the line of scrimmage.
Defense – This is your biggest test!!! SWARM THE BALL BE AGGRESSIVE!
Special Teams – We must win this phase. Keep focused. SCORE!!!!
Altus-Shawnee history
Although they haven’t played very many games against each other Altus and Shawnee has played some very interesting games and it goes back to the 1970s.
In 1971 the two teams met in the semifinals of the playoffs and it was a classic. Altus defeated the Wolves 44-36 in a very entertaining game. It was, for all practical purposes, for the state championship as the Bulldogs routed Okmulgee the next week in the state finals 42-14.
In 1973 the two teams got together again in the semifinals and again at Hightower Memorial Stadium. Altus started seven sophomores and led the favored Wolves 7-6 in the fourth quarter. Shawnee rallied to win 15-7 and was the eventual state champion.
In 1974 both schools moved up to Class 4A which at the time was the largest class in the state. Both played in the old Boomer Conference.
Altus and Shawnee met in the first week of the conference season. It was a strange night. Back in those days, Altus did not own charter buses. So they contracted buses for their game. There was a mix up and the charter buses transporting Altus was late picking up the team. The game was slated for 8 p.m. as most games were in those days. The Altus bus arrived at about 8 p.m. The Bulldogs quickly got dressed and had a short warm up period and the game began a little before 9 p.m.
The scored ended in a 7-7 tie and there was controversy. Altus scored first to go up 6-0. The extra point tried by kicker Eddie Graham clearly went about two feet under the cross bar. The officials signaled it good anyway which riled up the Shawnee crowd. The game ended in a tie and there was no overtime period back then. An irate fan reportedly threw a bottle at the officials when they were walking off the field after the game. Fortunately no one was injured.
It didn’t matter anyway. Shawnee lost several other district games and dropped out of the playoff chase. Altus placed second in the conference and advance to the playoffs in their first year in 4A. They defeated Tulsa Hale in the quarterfinals on a last second field goal by Graham 23-21. They were then defeated by Putnam City in the semifinals.
Bulldog notes: Wide receiver/running back Dom Nortonen will not play because of a knee injury suffered at Chickasha. Starting center Reece Woolbright is out because of an illness. He will be replaced by Ryan James or Jacob Billarrial. Nortonen will probably be replaced by sophomore Garrett Smith at receiver. Dyquan Woodhouse and Trevor Sterling are expected to play tailback. Nortonen is also the backup quarterback. Bob Laub will be the backup quarterback Friday night.
Laub won the iron man award again for his play against Chickasha. He participated in 132 plays against the Chicks..
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