Altus High’s dream of district championship went up in smoke on Friday night. A very good Deer Creek team came to town and ripped through the Bulldogs for an easy 39-0 District 5A-1 victory.

It was not that the Antlers defeated Altus that was shocking, but the way they did it.

“I really thought we could play with them,” Hepner said. “We got out played, outhit, outblocked, outcoached, out prepared, out everything. They are a good football team, but we didn’t play nearly as well as we could. I don’t have an answer for why we didn’t. Everybody in that locker room knew what we had ahead of us and we didn’t close the deal.”

If there was a bright spot, the Bulldogs played relatively good defense in the first half despite having their backs to the wall.

Deer Creek’s average field position in the first half was at the Bulldogs 45 yard line. Altus’ average start was from its own 13.

On the first possession of the game Altus faced a fourth down and two situation from their own 44 and Hepner decided to go for it,. But the Antlers held.

“I thought we could make it,” Hepner said. “I knew it was a bad place on the field, but if we made it, then we could keep it from them. It’s obvious what they can do when they get it.”

The Bulldogs defense forced Deer Creek to a three and out but the Antlers punted and Altus was forced to begin its next drive at its own four.

Altus could not move and Deer Creek started its next drive at the Bulldogs 30. Four plays later Deer Creek heralded quarterback Dax Dilbeck turned a busted play into a score. The senior, who has verbally committed to Oregon State, dropped the snap from center but picked it up and scored for 16 yards out.

A fumble on the Altus 10 gave the Antlers another scoring opportunity. However, the Bulldogs stopper unit forced a field goal. Sebastian Ibeagha kicked a 27-yarder to give the Antlers a 10-0 lead with 9:47 left in the first half.

Deer Creek’s scored once more in the first half on a 48-yard pass play from Dilbeck to wide receiver Zach Trujillo.

Any chance the Bulldogs would get back into the game was erased quickly as the Antlers scored 22 points in the third quarter.

Dilbeck scored on runs of 54 yards and 15 yards and Connor Patterson scored on a one yard run.

It was not a good night for the Bulldogs on offense. They had only 70 yards in total offense and only three plays for more than 10 yards.

“We were pretty helpless on offense,” Hepner said. “They knew what we were going to do and we couldn’t keep them from stopping us.”

Bulldog notes: The loss put the Bulldogs in a predicament as far as the playoffs are concerned.

Deer Creek and El Reno are now 5-1 while Altus, Duncan and Lawton MacArthur are all 4-2.

Altus must defeat Chickasha and hope that either Duncan loses to El Reno or MacArthur loses to Deer Creek in the final week of the season.

If Duncan defeats El Reno, MacArthur defeats Deer Creek and Altus gets by Chickasha, it would create a five-way tie for the four playoff spots.

The tiebreaker system would then come into play. Even if Altus defeated Chickasha by the maximum 15 points allowed in the tiebreaker systeam a five point or better victory by Duncan over El Reno would shut the Bulldogs out of the playoffs.

The best scenario for the Bulldogs would be for Altus to defeat Chickasha, Duncan to defeat El Reno and MacArthur to lose to Deer Creek. That would give Altus second place and a first round home playoff game.

Creadell Pennon was held out much of the second half because of an ankle injury. He should play against Chickasha.

How They Scored

Deer Creek – Dax Dilbeck 15 run (Sebastian Ibeacha kick), 4:42, 1st qtr., Deer Creek, 7-0.

Deer Creek – Ibeacha 27-yard field goal, 9:47, 2nd qtr., Deer Creek 10-0.

Deer Creek – Zach Trujillo 48 pass from Dilbeck (Ibeacha kick), 4:44, 2nd qtr. Deer Creek, 17-0.

Deer Creek – Dilbeck 15 run (Ibeacha kick), 9:09, 3rd qtr., Deer Creek, 24-0.

Deer Creek – Dilbeck 54 run (Ibeacha kick) 7:37, 3rd quarter, Deer Creek, 31-0.

Deer Creek – Connor Patterson 1 run (Tyler Price run), 2:12, 3rd qtr., Deer Creek 39-0.

Individual Statistics

Altus

Rushing

Pennon 14-15; Neely 3 (-18); Sterling 8-27; Furlough 3-7; Beisel 1-0; Wanke 1-4

Passing

Pennon 4-9-35; Neely 0-2; Beisel 0-4

Receiving

Dickerson 2-28; Richards 2-7

Punting

Wanke 8-42.5

Deer Creek

Rushing

Sander 18-120; Dilbeck 10-113, 3TDs; Patterson 3-4, 1 TD; Price 3 (-1); Williams 3 (-4)

Passing

Dilbeck 1-5-48 1TD

Receiving

Trujillo 1-48-1TD

Kicking

Ibeagha 54-4 PATs 1-1 FF-27 yards

Punting

Ibeagha 5-34.8

Interceptions – Byrd

Fumble recoveries – Pemberton