Senior night is a time to reflect on past memories while looking forward to the future. For the Del City Eagles, it almost turned into a night they’d rather forget. The Eagles (5-3) overcame a myriad of errors to squeak past the Duncan Demons (3-5) 14-7.
The mayhem began from the start when the opening kickoff sailed out of bounds for a penalty. The ensuing possession didn’t lead to points for the Demons, but a bad kickoff was only the beginning of the Eagles’ first quarter troubles.
Near the end of the first quarter, danger struck again. A drive led by some hard running by Demon’s running back Je’Mario McCoy ended with a score when quarterback Connor Kelly ran the ball into the end zone on a 2-yard carry.
It wasn’t looking like Del City’s night. The running game was firing on all cylinders but with the Eagles’ sophomore quarterback Colin Watford at the helm, the passing game was bogged down by missed targets and dropped balls.
The tides seemed to be turning with nine minutes left in the second quarter when Eagles linebacker Marquin Kirk recovered a fumble stopping a drive in Eagles territory. The Eagles literally took their opportunity and ran with it. RB’s Camrez Brown and Anthony Mason picked up their young play caller.
“Since we’re seniors, we try to pick him [Watford] up whenever he makes an interception and tell him keep playing” said Brown on his sophomore QB.
They did more than give him some encouraging words on this drive. It lasted a little more than three minutes as Brown and Mason pounded the ball downfield. Brown capped off the drive with a 2-yard TD run.
Yet, the kicking game continued to struggle. Senior Jordan Cook missed the extra point that would have tied the game instead the Demons held on to the lead 7-6. After a stop by the Eagles defense, they looked to be putting together an end of the half drive until Watford was picked off with 44 seconds remaining effectively sending the teams to halftime.
The second half began much the way the first half had ended. Neither team could gain an edge after a series of three and outs for each side. Then, it was Watford’s turn to pick up his team. Watford hooked up with junior wideout Davion Freeman for a 69-yard TD throw. A nifty fake extra point attempt where Mason found Freeman completed the 2-point conversion attempt to put the Eagles up 14-7 with 5:44 remaining in the third quarter.
The Eagles defense took control from that point on. McCoy was able to continue his fine day ending with 123 yards on 23 carries but the Demons could never generate enough of a passing attack to threaten again. Kelly was 1-5 for 13 yards on the night. For the Eagles, Mason ended his night with 103 yards on 27 carries while his running mate Brown had a night of his own with 98 yards on 18 carries.
Watford’s night wasn’t pretty ending up 9-26 for 126 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Still, his touchdown pass to Freeman ends up being the difference with the Eagles taking out the Demons 14-7.
“He managed the game for us. He did good,” said Eagles head coach Nick Warehime.
Del City continues its home stand as the Southeast Spartans (2-7) comes to town next Friday at 7 p.m. to close out the season. The Eagles now 6-3 overall and 5-1 in district still have an outside shot at winning District 5A-1.
“We can still win it. We just haven’t won the last few weeks by enough points,” said Warhime, “We needed to win out and we need help because of what we did at Ardmore, but we’ll see what happens.”
