Muskogee’s comeback started a little late.

That’s because Midwest City’s defense, led by OU commit Jalen Redmond, controlled the season-opening party for most of the evening, sacking Muskogee quarterback Jacob Medrano five times, one which ultimately kept the Roughers from rallying in a 26-20 outcome Friday on Creek Nation Field at Indian Bowl.

Medrano scored on runs of 17 and 4 yards in the fourth quarter, the last with :24 left. That came after Kaleel Smith scooped up a stripped football and ran it 41 yards for a score late in the third quarter. Prior to that, the Roughers trailed 26-0 and had been overwhelmed on both sides of the ball.

The Bombers’ first touchdown occurred when Redmond’s partner on the defensive front, Jaden Warren, jarred Medrano with a hit from behind, knocking the ball loose. Redmond scooped up the loose football at the 3 and carried it to the 1, where Jaden Mitchell ran it in on the next play for a 7-0 lead with 3:36 to go in the opening quarter.

Medrano was also intercepted three times, twice on Muskogee’s first two series of the second half and one that led to a four-play, 26-yard scoring march.

The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Redmond unofficially had three sacks, batted or tipped four passes and disrupted any offensive rhythm Muskogee tried to execute.

“He’s by far the most athletic defensive end I’ve ever seen,” Medrano said.

Muskogee coach Rafe Watkins let his crimson and cream fanboy show.

“Being an OU fan, I hope he stays with that commitment,” Watkins said. “He was the difference, especially in the first half. He controlled the line of scrimmage. He’s as good as there is and I’ve coached against a lot of D1 kids.

“If they don’t have him, we can run our offense. But he disrupted everything. They play off your receivers where you can run a stop route or out route any time you want, but the reason you can’t is that he’s so tall. He blocked down seemed like four or five when we’re wide open, but you can do that when you can jump 12 feet in the air.”

Muskogee finished with 15 yards rushing, but that included 37 yards in sacks. Outside of those numbers tagged to Medrano’s total, he had 52 yards to lead the ground game.

“I didn’t play smart the first half,” Medrano said. “Second half I did. The first half I should have just tucked and went when I could because nothing was there.”

It was a baptism by fire for an MHS offensive line minus a returning starter off last year’s semifinalist squad. None of five running backs averaged more than a yard. Kyri Beasley, who started, had six carries for six yards.

“It looked like a sinking ship the first half but I hope people realize when you have five offensive linemen against that defensive line and a secondary that can lock your kids down and you don’t have any time. … we can side-step, scramble and our guys can get open against others but this was a different beast,” Watkins said. “We’re a work in progress and you can see that as this game progressed, we got better.”

Midwest City quarterback Preston Colbert threw for two touchdowns, a 16-yarder to DeClaudio Irvin and a 22-yarder to T’Aces Vick, both in the second half, then opened the third-quarter scoring with a 5-yard run to make it 26-0 with 6:09 left in the period. The pass to Irvin was set up by a screen of 34 yards to Jacob Reed.

“Both times (Vick) was in we knew they were going to throw the swing pass,” Watkins said. “Both times different linebackers went to him but they were flat and we don’t have anyone that can go flat with him and then try to chase and turn up. Whenever they’re even he’s going to be gone, and especially against our linebackers.”

"Then on the screen, Reed was in and we were like ‘screen, screen, screen.’ We called about half the plays they ran and we couldn’t stop them. None of our corners played well. We had trouble giving up slant routes. And even though we didn’t tackle great we had some fourth down stops and a strip late and that shows me we fought back.”

Both of Medrano’s scores came on drives that started after fourth-down stops.

Muskogee travels to McAlester next week before an open week follows.

MIDWEST CITY 26, MUSKOGEE 20

Midwest City 7 13 6 0 —26

Muskogee 0 0 6 14 —20

Scoring summary

First quarter

MWC-Jaden Mitchell 1 run (Elliott Yanish kick), 3:36. 

Second quarter

MWC-DeClaudio Irvin 16 pass from Preston Colbert (Yanish kick), 5:07.

MWC-T’Aces Vick 22 pass from Colbert (kick blocked), 2:56.

Third quarter

MWC- Colbert 5 run (kick blocked), 6:09.

Mus-Kaleel Smith 41 fumble return (kick blocked), 3:46. 

Fourth quarter

Mus-Jacob Medrano 17 run (Jacob Scheihing kick), 11:54.

Mus-Medrano 4 run (Scheihing kick), :24.

TEAM STATS

MW Mus

First Downs 17 15

Rushes-Yards 47-196 29-15

Passing Yards 201 175

Passes C-A-I 11-25-0 24-38-3

Punts-Avg. 4-32 3-26

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 2-2

Penalties-Yards 17-132 7-56

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Passing: MWC, Colbert 11-25-201-0 (2 TD). Mus, Medrano 24-38-175-3.

Rushing: MWC, Astin Anderson 20-82. Mus, Medrano 14-12.

Receiving: MWC, Vick 2-54 (TD), Juwan Walker 3-36. Mus, Mathis Givens 3-45, Quintevin Cherry 6-39.