By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Every district game is important.
For Yukon, their biggest and most important game is next on the list.
Yukon will take to the road for only the second time this season and will face Westmoore in a key District 6AI-1 game. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Moore Stadium.
The Millers, 4-2, are 1-2 in district play and need the win tonight to keep their changes for a playoff berth alive. Westmoore is 2-1 in the district and also 4-2 overall. Broken Arrow next Thursday and finish out the season with Enid and Edmond Memorial.
The teams have two common opponents so far. Westmoore beat Moore 35-6, but lost to Mustang 21-14. The Millers beat Moore 14-7 and Mustang 19-14. Westmoore won the meeting between the teams last year.
“Westmoore has a lot of athletes, they are really athletic,” Miller head coach Jeremy Reed said. “It was what they hang their hat on, how many guys they have that can run. That is the biggest thing they bring.
“I thought there was a lot of things we did well last week. The players know that every game is huge this point of the year and wins are at a premium. You gave to refocus at the task at hand this week and try not to keep it super tense, that is the best method right now for this group. We are trying to keep it business as usual.”
The Millers will be looking to snap a two-game losing skid. YHS lost to Jenks 48-17 last week but looks to go in and play ball control offense and keep the ball out of the hands of the Jaguars offense.
The Jaguars have based their offense on speed and aggressiveness and head coach Lorenzo Williams said this team is one of the fastest he has had. Quarterback Dayton Wolfe triggers the offense and has a pair of big linemen in Layne Grantham (6-3, 306) and Jorge Exinia (6-0, 280) for protection.
“They have a sophomore quarterback that is playing really well,” he added. “The runningback they have didn’t play a lot last year, but they have some linemen that are good. They just have a lot of athletes to their disposal over there.
“They like to spread the field out and basically run the same type of offense they did last year, only with different people,” Reed said. “We have to do what we have done, not turn the ball over and execute what we call. We had probably our best game on the front line all year last week and that is encouraging. We just have to go be who we are and I think we will be successful.
“On defense, we have to fit like we were the first four games,” he said. “We had some alignment error and fit issues the last two weeks and we didn’t fit to the gaps like we had been doing. We have to get back to the basics of being aligned, that is the big part of defense, to be in the right spots before the ball is snapped.”
Both teams know the implications of the game and that should make this contest more of a battle with the winner coming out with the better chance to make the playoffs.
“Westmoore is looking at this game the same way we are,” he said. “I know they still have Jenks and Santa Fe and they know this is a big game as well.”
