Altus High head football coach Lyn Hepner has always advocated a difficult non district football schedule.

He said the Bulldogs, who will take a 1-2 record into Friday night’s District 5A-1 opener at El Reno, are prepared for a playoff run. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m.

Altus has defeated Lawton Eisenhower, lost a close one to Vernon, Texas, and was beaten last week by a good Lawton High club.

Hepner said those games have gotten the Bulldogs prepared for the district race.

“Going into the district season, I feel pretty good about how the non-district games prepared us, Hepner said. “Had we not played a Lawton High and seen the things we need to repair in the secondary, we may have found out the hard way later on.”

Hepner said by repairing the secondary, there would be no personnel changes in that area. He talked about making adjustments and changing the style of play.

“And that’s not just the secondary because the rush should hurry the quarterback or preventing him from throwing at all,” Hepner said. “Once it gets in the air, everybody then thinks it’s pass defense. But it starts with the rush.

“Except for Vernon (season opening game with the Vernon Lions) We haven’t been beaten deep. Now we need to stop those mid range passes. We have to be better at getting into the flats, the linebacker dropping into the hook zone.”

What has been good for the Bulldogs is their ability to stop the run. Altus has yielded an average of 90 yards per game and 2.6 yard per rush.

“Although Ike wasn’t a running team, Vernon hangs its hat on it and it’s a good part of Lawton High’s game. So to deny them that shows that’s one area we don’t have to worry about much.”

That run defense will be put to the test by El Reno (2-1), who relies heavily on junior quarterback Jakail Everheart (5-9,160) who operates its one-back and I formation attack. Everheart is a quick shifty runner who likes to run the option.

“They depend on him,” Hepner said. “He can run to the edge and pass. Against Elk City, he ran 20 yards for a touchdown and threw an 81 yard touchdown pass. They remind me of Vernon in a way in that they are willing to chug along, maybe be stopped, maybe for losses and then try to hit you with long one. They are a running football team but they will take shot deep (with the pass).”

Defensively the Indians line up in a 4-3 and 4-4 set. Their playmakers are tackle Bryan Solomon (6-1. 220 Sr.) and linebacker Austin Feddersen (5-11, 185 Sr.).

“Their opportunistic,” Hepner said. “They stopped Elk City twice inside the 10. So they are rise-to-occasion bunch.”

The keys for the Bulldogs on offense are simple run the football with quarterback Creadell Pennon and tailback Gerard Harris.

Pennon leads the team in rushing with 238 yards on 33 carries for a 6.8 yards per carry. Harris has run for 202 yards on 46 attempts for an average 4.6 per play.

Defensively the Bulldogs must contain Everheart. “Whatever he does we need to make him not do it,” Hepner said. “If we can just do what we do (stop the run) and stop those mid zone passes we’ll be all right. Physically I think our defensive line should provide the difference in the game.”

Game notes: El Reno has fallen on hard times recently. Last year they were 3-7 so they brought back one of the most successful coaches in El Reno history. Tom Cobble coached the Indians from 1979 to 1987 El Reno made the playoffs seven of those years and had its best finish in school history when they state runner up in 1981.

“They are sound,” Hepner said. “You can tell there’s a plan. You can tell coaching is apparent”

El Reno has defeated Elk City and Woodward by identicle scores of 19-7 and lost to second ranked Guthrie 35-0.

Bulldog notes: Junior linebacker Ryan Feller had a tremendous game against Lawton High. He was in on 20 tackles, 5 unassisted with 15 assists. He leads the team on the season with seven unassisted stops and 36 assists.

The playoff run begins on Friday and also the opportunity to prove some prognosticators wrong. The district coaches poll had Altus third in the district which would be good enough to get the Bulldogs in the playoffs. However ‘High School Sports the Magazine’ had Altus finishing seventh in the district and 24th out of 32 of the class 5A teams. The preseason poll of the Daily Oklahoma had the Bulldogs 26th.

“We’ve mentioned it,” Hepner said. “I don’t know how long that stays on a guy’s mind after kick off.”

Directions to El Reno

Go to Interstate 40, take the Country Club Road exit. Go north for three miles to a dead end (Sunset Street) Go left on Sunset and you will see the stadium.